


One Large Family, Side Order of Love

by CaptainLeBubbles



Series: The Hallmarks of a Family (Hallmark AU) [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: (all references are backstory only), Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Found Family, Hallmark AU, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-09-05 10:06:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 59,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16808500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: James never actually intended to stop at one child. And now that he’s finally let his life move forward after Josef, he thinks it’s time to make good on those intentions, and decides to go into foster care.But when his first foster child turns out to be a blast from Qrow’s past, the kids decide this is a sign that it’s time for Qrow to make right the mistakes of before.Regardless of what Qrow thinks is actually best.It’s going to be a long road.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this was originally going to be my big Christmas fic and then LazyTown took over my brain out of nowhere, but then almost the minute I finished the other Christmas fic I started thinking about this again so I'm gonna see how far I can get into this. I do already know how it ends so hopefully I can get there in a timely manner (ha).
> 
> This is only a Christmas fic in the sense that the resolution happens on or around Christmas, but it starts in August for some reason. I'm sure that made sense to me when I wrote it.
> 
> I'll update the tags during later chapters but I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet, even though I feel like it'll be really obvious to anyone who's read the first one.
> 
> This is a sequel to last year's Christmas au, For Christmas, One Family, Ready Made, and while you are certainly welcome to read this one without reading that one, certain things might not make any sense to you if you do.
> 
> (By the way updates for this will be sporadic because my buffer for this fic is practically nonexistent sorryyyyy.)

-/-

Nora was lying on her back staring up at the bottom of Ruby’s bunk, listening to Ruby mumble to herself in her sleep. It was the middle of the night, and she was so, so tired, but she couldn’t sleep, and Ruby wasn’t helping any.

Not for the first time lately, Nora found herself wishing for her own room. As much as she loved Ruby, sharing a room was getting to be, well.

And she _did_ love Ruby. She _did_. Ruby was one of her best friends, her favorite cousin (don’t tell Yang), and one of her favorite people in the world. But sharing a bedroom with her-

With a sigh, Nora got up and staggered sleepily out of the room. Maybe she could sleep on the couch or something.

Her plan to sneakily sleep on the couch was foiled before it began, because when she got to the living room Qrow was already there, sprawled across the couch with one hand holding his phone and the other trailing against the floor. When she came in, he looked up and switched his phone off, but not before she caught Mr. Ironwood’s picture at the bottom.

“Hey kiddo,” he said. “What are you doing up?”

“Ruby talks in her sleep,” she said, nudging him enough that she could sit down on the couch and sprawl beside him, her head pillowed on his bony shoulder. He brought his free hand up to stroke her hair absently.

“You wanna sleep in here? You’ll be woken up early, Tai has an eight o’clock tomorrow.”

“No, I’ll go back soon, I just wanted some space.”

“Kay.” His phone lit up then; Nora was able to catch Mr. Ironwood’s picture on the alert, but Qrow moved it out of the way before she could try to be nosy. He didn’t reply immediately, setting the phone down instead so he could go back to stroking her hair, humming softly.

Her eyes closed; she was drifting off, not quite asleep but resting far more easily than she had in her room. It was so peaceful in here. So cosy.

“Hey Nora.”

“Hmm?”

“How do you feel about moving?”

And just like that the peace was gone. Panic shot through Nora before she had even processed the question- a long list of things that could have, must have gone wrong, he was sending her away, she knew this day would come-

“Hey, hey, easy.” There was a shift as Qrow moved them both, pushing up into a sitting position and curling protectively around Nora, who’d gone stiff against him without quite realizing it. He brought his hand down from her hair to rub her back instead. “I’m not sending you away, that’s not why I’m asking. Come on, kiddo, deep breaths.”

It was only a moment before calm returned. Nora side-eyed him. “Why are you asking?”

“Well-” He waved his phone vaguely. “Me and Jimmy have been talking and, well, we’ve been thinking about. Moving us in with him. And it’s still in the really vague early stages but, you know, I reckon maybe we’ve reached the point where I start floating the idea past you, see what you think.”

“Move in with Mr. Ironwood?”

“Yeah.”

Nora considered this. “Does he have room for all of us? Or do you mean we’ll get a bigger house?”

“All of- ah.” Qrow rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “When I say us, I just mean me and you. Tai and Yang and Ruby will stay here. It’ll just be the two of us.”

“Why?”

“Why?” He laughed. Rubbed his neck some more. “Well, you know, we’ve been dating for nearly a year now, things are looking kind of serious- and you know, it’s hard to coordinate our relationship with all the responsibilities we have and, you know, it’s, it’s just something that’s on the table, okay? Nothing is set in stone, or really planned in any way. We’re just talking about the possibility. I just wanted to know how you felt about it.”

“Well why can’t they move here?”

“This house is crowded enough as it is,” he pointed out. “We don’t really have room to bring two more people, _and_ all of their things, into it. Besides, Jimmy works out of home a lot, he needs to have a workroom.”

“Then why can’t we all get a big house together? Uncle Tai needs you, you can’t just leave him.”

“There is that,” Qrow murmured. “Hey, it’s just an idea, okay? Nothing is being planned for real. Just give it some thought, see how you feel about the idea.”

“Okay.” She wiggled slightly, and then slid off of his lap. “I’m going back to bed now. I have a lot to think about.”

“Yeah, of course. Hey, do me a favor, yeah? Don’t tell any of the others about this? I know how you kids like to gossip and this is something private. Just between us, okay?”

Nora hesitated, halfway across the room, her mind already on how she was going to tell her friends about this at school in the morning. She nodded. “I won’t say anything.”

“Good girl. Good night.”

“Night…”

-/-

“Uncle Qrow wants us to move in with Mr. Ironwood,” Nora said the next morning, after dragging Ren away from the swingset she and her friends had taken over this year. She’d pulled him under the little tree on the line between the fourth/fifth and sixth grade playgrounds, where they were sure to get some privacy, because while she was pretty sure Qrow had included Ren in his “anyone”, she couldn’t just _not_ tell him. If nothing else, he would know something was on her mind, and after what happened last year, he’d gotten better about pushing to know she was okay.

“That’s a big step,” Ren said. “I didn’t know they were at that stage of their relationship.”

“They’ve been dating for ten months,” Nora pointed out. “That’s practically forever. I don’t know why they’re not married right now.”

“That sort of thing only happens in stories,” said a voice above them, and they looked up to see Jaune hanging from the branch above them. “Hey guys. Sorry about eavesdropping. Also, I’m stuck.”

“Oh, Jaune.” Nora rolled her eyes and, with Ren’s help, was able to scramble up the tree to help him unhook his belt from where it was caught on a protruding branch. His pants free, Jaune was able to drop from the branch, only narrowly avoiding landing on his face. He stood up and brushed himself off.

“What were you doing up there anyway?” Nora asked, dropping down from the branch a lot more gracefully, though still managing to scrape at her palms. She rubbed them on her skirt, hoping the redness was just temporary, and turned her attention back to her friend.

“I was climbing,” Jaune said. “My brother dropped me off early and no one was around and I was bored.”

“Why not call the playground monitor?” Ren said, very sensibly in Nora’s opinion (but Ren was always sensible). Jaune just shrugged.

“Wasn’t here yet.”

“There weren’t _any_ adults around?” Nora stared wide-eyed. Sure, she’d been left to her own devices plenty over the years, but there was always an adult nearby _somewhere_ . None of her guardians, even the worst of the lot, had ever left her _completely_ unattended- and the only time she ever had been was still scary to look back on, albeit a bit thrilling as well.

Jaune shrugged again. “He had a job to get to. It’s not a big deal. I’m nearly eleven, I can take care of myself for a little while.”

Ren looked concerned by this, which was perhaps why Jaune cut off any expression of that concern he might make by turning his attention to Nora.

“So you and Mr. Qrow are moving in with Mr. Ironwood?”

“Maybe,” Nora said. “Or maybe not. He said it was just something he was thinking about, and wanted to know how I felt about it.”

“How _do_ you feel about it?” Ren asked.

“I don’t know. I mean, it’d be so nice if him and Mr. Ironwood could see each other a lot more without having to coordinate with us kids, and I kinda wish I had my own room since Ruby isn’t the best roommate in the world. But I was wishing for, like, a room in the same house, not the other side of town.” Her face fell. “I only ever get to see Yang and Ruby at home anymore, since Yang is in middle school and Ruby is stuck in the fourth-fifth grade wing. It’ll be years before we’re all at the same place again.”

The others nodded in sympathy at this. With Yang, Blake, and Pyrrha up at the middle school, and Ruby, Jaune, and Neptune still stuck in the other wing of the elementary school, their friend group had taken a big hit this school year. Their group was the biggest, with Sun, Penny, and Weiss alongside, but it wasn’t the same as when they were all together.

“It’s not like you’ll never see them again,” Jaune pointed out. “I mean, I don’t live with my brothers, but I see them all the time- um, when they’re not too busy. It’s not like you’re moving to the other side of the country or anything.”

“And being apart doesn’t mean _we_ never see each other,” Ren pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but..” She rubbed her arm, and didn’t point out that Jaune could sometimes go weeks without seeing his brothers, who were both busy with their own lives and not always able to make time for him, or that when things got hectic she might go ages only seeing Ren at school. Nor did she mention that in her experience, as soon as people stopped living together they stopped being family, and she never wanted Ruby and Yang and Uncle Tai to stop being her family. Instead she gave a sodden little half-shrug. “Maybe he’ll decide against it. Or maybe him and Mr. Ironwood will decide to get a bigger house so that we can all live together.”

-/-

Last year, the school run had been one of Qrow’s favorite times of the day. Not just because after a day of wrangling ten-year-olds it was nice to send them off for the evening, but also because James came around to pick up Penny and they got to spend a few minutes together. During the more hectic times of their year, this could be the only time they saw each other all week, and Qrow would take whatever he could get.

But Penny was off in the sixth grade wing now, and it wasn’t on the way or feasible timewise for James to stop by his classroom every day when he picked her up.

He still managed to make time some days, though. Qrow was cleaning the board when he heard his classroom door open, and had just time to register that all his kids were already gone before a pair of hands rested on his hips and a pair of lips brushed the base of his neck. He stretched his arms back and his hands found a familiar coif of gelled hair, eliciting a pleasant hum.

“Hello to you too,” he said, as more kisses were pressed against his neck. “To what do I owe this?”

“Your classroom was empty for once,” James said.

“So you decided to come molest me in it?”

“You’re not exactly complaining,” James pointed out, leaning pointedly into the hands still petting his hair. “But if you want, I can back off.”

He made to do so, but Qrow turned and followed, not letting him out of his personal space. Qrow grinned, and tugged him down so he could kiss him properly before, “Today’s the day, right?”

“Yes.”

“Nervous?”

“Terrified.” He rested his forehead against Qrow’s for just a moment. “How many times have you done this?”

“A lot.” He stole a quick kiss and put some space between them. “Want to talk about it?”

“The kid hasn’t said a word to me in any of the meetings we’ve had,” James said, after a moment of considering the offer. “Which could be because of the social worker, but could be because of anything. And I feel like my social worker is hiding something about this kid’s situation from me. So I don’t actually know what I’m getting myself into.” He let out a long breath, and rubbed at his forehead. “I’m bringing this child into my home and I don’t even know what I’m getting into.”

“If it helps, even with kids and social workers who are aboveboard and honest, you can’t know what you’re getting into. There’s only so much you can prepare for, especially when you insist on taking on older kids.”

“Yeah?”

Qrow nodded. “I knew Nora was coming from neglectful guardians. I wasn’t prepared for how that had shaped her, or the work I’d have to put in- the work I’m _still_ putting in- having to undo that. Even though I knew I’d have to. Does that make sense? Even when you know a kid’s situation intimately, you can’t know how it’s affected them. Foster care is a lot of winging it. Parenting in general,” he added. “Which you’re pretty good at.”

“I was definitely not prepared for Penny,” James agreed. “But all the same, Josef and I were the only parents she ever knew. This kid’s been shuffled around the area for a few years now. And the only thing I know about the previous guardians are that the last one was arrested.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah.”

Further comment was prevented by the door opening again and Ruby and Penny appearing in the classroom. They tackled James, Penny getting him around the legs and Ruby hanging from his arm.

“Today’s the day!” Ruby said delightedly. “Are you excited?”

“Of course,” James said, giving Ruby a fond look and setting her down gently before ruffling her hair. “I’d ask if you are, but-“

“It’s always exciting!”

“I am excited too,” Penny said, tucking herself under his arm. “I have never been a sister before.”

“You’re gonna be great at it, Penny,” Ruby assured her.

“So what have you kids got planned for tonight?” James asked, redirecting the subject before they could notice his nerves.

“We’re going over to Sun’s house,” Ruby said. “His brother agreed to be our table master for Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons so we’re going to play that.”

“I will have to miss it,” Penny pouted. “But if it is fun and you do it again, we can always introduce my character later.”

“DD and More D?” James asked, glancing over at Qrow, who was grabbing his bag so they could leave.

“They’ve been listening to this podcast lately,” Qrow said. “ Critical Zone? Apparently the game is pretty big now, not just for nerdy losers anymore.”

“Thanks a lot,” James said, prompting Qrow to raise an eyebrow at him before his face split into a grin. James rolled his eyes and pushed Qrow toward the door. “Yes, I used to play ddnmd as a kid.”

“That’s adorable.”

“You used to play?” Ruby asked, latching onto his arm again. “Tell me about your character!”

The walk to the sixth grade wing was spent in James telling the girls about one of the characters he’d played in high school, a Shireling Archer, and the adventures he could remember having.

“Did Aunt Glynda play with you?” Penny asked.

“Sometimes.”

“Will you play with us sometime?” Ruby asked. “I mean, if Sun’s brother doesn’t want to. Will you play with us?”

“Uh… we’ll see,” he said, hesitant. His schedule was packed as it was, and in his experience ddnmd tended to take up a lot of time. “Let’s see what happens tonight and we’ll talk about it another time.”

“That means no,” Ruby told Penny, as the group came to a halt in front of one of the classrooms. Nora was inside with Ren, and she looked up at they arrived.

“Time to go, kiddo,” Qrow said.

“Awwww, do I have to?”

“Can’t stay here.” When she reluctantly grabbed her bag and joined them, Qrow looped an arm around her shoulder. “None of that, you kids have a schedule to keep. Hey, Ren,” he added, because Ren had walked Nora to the door. “You gonna play with the rest of your pals tonight?”

“Yes. Nora and I decided our characters are going to be siblings.”

“He’s gonna be my little sister!” Nora cheered. “And we’re on an _epic quest_ to find the monster that destroyed our village and separated us from our parents! And I get to use a giant electric hammer!”

Ruby pouted. “Aww, your backstory’s way better than mine.”

“What’s yours?” James asked, suddenly curious.

“My character is an immortal wizard who was killed in a war with the forces of evil and reincarnated into the body of a young farmhand, and now she’s trying to regain her power so she can defeat her long-sworn enemy.”

James’ eyebrows went up. “That’s a very creative backstory,” he said, a little stunned.

“I guess,” Ruby said. “But it’s not as good as Nora and Ren’s. Theirs works _together_.”

They’d been walking while they talked, and now they had reached the main entrance to the school, where James and Penny would head left to the guest parking lot, and Qrow, Nora, and Ruby would head right to the teachers’. They lingered, as they often did; it was one of those weeks where they just didn’t have much time to spare for each other.

Nora looked between Qrow and James while they shared a few last words before parting- Qrow was assuring James about something, but it seemed to be building on a previous conversation so she wasn’t sure about the context. But James after a moment let out a soft, half-hearted laugh.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll call later and let you know how it goes. Have fun with your dungeon crawling, kids,” he added, giving Nora and Ruby a last wave before he and Penny left.

-/-

Ten minutes later, Qrow pulled his pickup into the parking lot at the middle school. They didn’t get out; middle school kids liked to walk out to meet their ride instead of their ride coming to collect them.

(“Why?” Ruby had asked, the first time Qrow had told her they would wait for Yang out here.

“Because Yang is in middle school now,” he’d explained. “That means she wants to feel like we think she’s grown up. By letting her come out to the parking lot to meet us, we’re telling her- and her peers- that we think she’s mature enough to handle it.”

Ruby had pouted at that- she wanted to be able to go to the middle school and look around- but Qrow had held firm, and so every day when they reached the school he sent Yang a text to let her know they were there, and she’d come out to meet them.)

Today she tossed her backpack into the bed of the pickup and climbed up into shotgun with a groan.

“Glynda is the _worst_ ,” she said.

“Sometimes,” Qrow agreed. “Got a lot of homework?”

“When does she expect me to _sleep_?”

Qrow chuckled and pulled out. “When you’re dead, I guess. Need help with any of it?”

“No, it’s _doable_ , there’s just a lot of it.” She huffed her bangs out of her eyes. “Hey Uncle Qrow?”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you ever yell at me for calling Mrs. Goodwitch a pain like Dad does?”

“Cause she is,” Qrow said, shrugging. “And because I know you’re just venting frustrations, and you respect Glynda enough to never say anything like this to her face.”

“I thought it was just cause you didn’t like her,” Nora piped up from the back seat.

Qrow chuckled. “I like her just fine. She’s a good friend- and I owe a lot to her. But that doesn’t mean I’m blind to her faults, or that I agree with her methods all the time. Or that I don’t know how stressful it can be to be her student.”

“Penny says she’s a lot nicer at home,” Ruby put in, earning another laugh.

“I imagine she is, without the stress of all of her responsibilities to deal with.” He looked over at Yang. “ _Would_ you say anything like that to her face?”

“Of course not,” Yang said. “She’s a good teacher, it’s just rough sometimes.”

“And that’s why I let you vent to me when you’re frustrated.”

-/-

So here’s the thing: James was not entirely sure what gender his new foster child actually _was_.

He knew that, according to the papers he’d been given, according to the people at protective services, according to his social worker, he was supposed to be getting a girl. But he’d _met_ the child. And after Penny had come out, he’d started learning about the things to look for, and he had his doubts about what he was looking at.

It was the little things. Sure, the child could be a tomboy. It wasn’t written anywhere that a girl _couldn’t_ look like a boy, and he certainly wasn’t going to police how any child in his home presented themselves- he had far more important concerns as a foster parent than whether his foster children conformed to arbitrary gender standards.

But he’d seen the way the child winced when they were introduced, and when the social worker used female pronouns. He’d been watching carefully and caught the sneer when she’d spoken about the challenges of taking care of a teenage girl, as if girls were a monolith anyway.

So he had his doubts. And as soon as they brought the child home, he decided to ask.

“I’ll show you to your room in a moment,” he said, gesturing at the stairs. “But I wanted to talk to you before you go.” The child looked up at him, halfway between unimpressed and sneering. “I’ve noticed you don’t seem particularly at ease when referred to by the name on your papers, so I wanted to know what you’d prefer to be called. I’d like you to be comfortable here, and that includes something as small as calling you the name you want to be called.”

He was subjected to a searching look, suspicious, looking for honesty in his face, and did his best to make his sincerity apparent. After a moment, the child snorted and pushed his (?) hair back from his face, in a motion that reminded James oddly of Qrow.

“It’s Mercury.”

-/-


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James deals with this new problem the same way he deals with all of his problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The presence of Mercury should have made this apparent already, but I just wanna heads up you guys that this story isn't gonna be a very _nice_ story. Mercury is a naughty boy who has been hurt a lot and as the centerpoint of this tale, he's going to drive the niceness factor down.
> 
> Remember last story when everyone pulled together and there was a lot of teamwork, even in groups that were opposed? This isn't that story, and I'm not pulling my punches.

-/-

This was not a situation James knew how to deal with. So, as he always did in situations he didn’t know how to deal with-

-he called his sister. Because she was infinitely more sensible than him, and would know what to advise.

“I have a problem,” James said, as soon as she answered the phone. On the other end, he heard her sigh.

“You just got the child home today,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re already overwhelmed.”

It was amazing how she always did that. “It’s not that,” he said, and, “How much do you know about Qrow’s last foster child? The one before Nora, I mean.”

“Mercury? A lot. Why?”

“Because he’s my new foster child.”

“What?” There was a momentary pause, and then he heard her sigh again, this time more worried than exasperated. “James, this is- not great.”

“No kidding.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and went quiet, listening for the children. He could hear Penny’s voice coming up from the kitchen, where the last time he’d checked on them, Penny was explaining the ddmd character she’d made, just in case she got to play with her friends after all. He couldn’t hear Mercury, but judging by Penny’s chatter, he could guess the kid was with her still.

“What are you going to do?” Glynda asked, bringing him back to the conversation.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I mean- I’m dating one of his previous guardians. Gods, we’ve been talking about moving in. This, though- I don’t think it will do Qrow any favors, and I doubt Mercury will be any more pleased than Qrow.”

“True.” Another pause. Penny’s laughter floated up from the kitchen. “James, you can’t just send him away.”

“I know.” He laughed. “I’ve heard just enough about this situation to know how badly that would turn out. But I can’t just- I can’t just let this sit, Glynda. I can’t keep Mercury from finding out, and I definitely can’t keep it from Qrow.”

“So don’t try. Good grief, James, you’re not walking into a warzone. This is a child’s life we’re talking about. Try talking to him. Explain the situation, find out what  _ he _ wants to do.” Her tone, when she spoke again, was softer. “From what I can understand, it’s not something a lot of people have bothered to do for him.”

There, what did he say? Sensible.

“You’re right,” he said.

“I’m always right.”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

-/-

After hanging up with Glynda, James headed back downstairs, thinking that maybe it was time to get dinner ready. He needed to spend some time talking to Mercury, but maybe they could at least have a nice evening before the heavy conversations.

“What are we having for dinner, Peanut?” he asked, joining the kids in the kitchen. Mercury was drawing on his arm with a sharpie, while Penny doodled in her notebook. When James appeared, she set her pencil down and turned to him, but Mercury just snorted and carried on with his self-graffiti.

“May we have hamburger macaroni?” she asked excitedly, raising her hand in punctuation.

“I don’t see why not. How does that sound to you, Mercury?”

Mercury shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters,” James said. “It’s good to be able to eat what’s put in front of you when you need to, but we’re well-stocked, and I’m perfectly able to make something you’d like to eat as well. And if there’s something you like to eat that we don’t have, just let me know, and I’ll try to get the ingredients for it next time I get groceries.”

“Tch.” He slouched further down into his chair, turning his face away so he wasn’t looking at him. “Whatever, hamburger macaroni is fine.”

“Yes!” Penny jumped up and ran over to the cabinet, rummaging around a moment before emerging triumphantly with a box of hamburger-mac. She held it aloft, just as James was taking the milk and cheese from the fridge.

“Would you like to help us, Mercury?”

He laughed, not a nice laugh at all, and said, “Nah, I don’t cook.”

“Suit yourself.”

-/-

Dinner was not a massive failure, James decided later. He asked Mercury about himself, and while Mercury clearly didn’t trust his interest, he actually answered… somewhat. Certainly he was more talkative than he’d been during their few meetings with the social worker prior.

And then- well, it was too much to hope that it wouldn’t come up on its own, James admitted. After all, Qrow and his family were too much a part of their lives, they were  _ going _ to come up in the course of conversation. Even if James was careful, Penny wasn’t. She didn’t  _ know _ to be.

“Mr. Port is nice, but I miss being in Mr. Qrow’s class,” Penny said, at the end of a story about their field trip to City Hall earlier that month. “Our field trips were always way more interesting in his class.”

“I’ll just bet,” Mercury said darkly. “So you were in Qrow’s class, huh?”

“Oh yes!” Penny chirped, and James would have given anything to freeze time in that moment, because the next thing Penny said was, “Actually, he and Father have been dating for almost a year now.”

“It’s only been eight months,” James corrected, and turned his attention to Mercury, who was staring at him with a mixture of anger and mistrust. James took a deep breath to steel himself. “I meant to bring it up later. It didn’t feel like dinner conversation.”

Mercury snorted, and pushed his chair away from the table. “I’m done eating,” he said, and turned to leave. “I’ll be in my room.”

“Of course,” James said. “But we do need to talk later.”

“Whatever.”

-/-

James had given Mercury a phone. He said that at thirteen, he understood that he warranted a little more freedom and a little less supervision than, say, a ten year old, and wanted him to be able to call if he ever needed to. Mercury stared down at the phone in his hand. It was pretty plain- plain silver in a plain black case. No apps. The only two numbers stored in it were the house phone and James’ own cell phone.

None of his guardians had ever given him a phone before.

There was a crumpled receipt at the bottom of Mercury’s pocket, folded in half with a phone number written in sharpie across the sale of a mochaccino three months ago. He took it out and unfolded it out onto his bedspread, and carefully dialed the number.

(As if he didn’t have it memorized. As if he hadn’t spent the past three months staring at this, this last shred of the comfortable life he almost had.)

“Rainart,” rumbled a voice on the other end.

“Is Emerald there?”

The man on the other end said something that Mercury thought might be an affirmative, and there was a click as the phone was set down. Mercury could hear unintelligible conversation on the other end, and then the phone being picked up again.

“Hello?”

“Em?”

“Mercury!”

Oh  _ gods _ he’d missed her. Something in his chest clenched and tightened at the sound of her voice.

“Hey, Em. Been awhile.”

“It’s been three months! You were supposed to call me sooner!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly have a phone, did I?” And now he did. He needed to think about that. “They finally got me a real placement, though. Hardass named Ironwood.”

“Is he treating you okay?”

Mercury shrugged, even though she couldn’t see him. “All right so far. It’s only been today. He’s got a metric shitton of rules. Calls me Mercury.”

“That’s  _ good _ ,” Emerald insisted. “It’s a good sign.”

“The bar is so damn low.” Mercury sighed. “He’s also Qrow’s boyfriend.”

“Oh. Oh, Merc, are you okay?”

“You know, if  _ anyone _ but you asked me that, I’d deck them.”

“I know. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He snorted. “But how long do you think the hardass down there is gonna want to keep me around once things get awkward in his little love paradise?”

“He might not send you away. He might let you stay.”

“Going soft on me, Emmy?” He sneered down the line. “This new guy they got you living with must be the cat’s nightwear.”

“He’s okay,” and he could hear her own shrug as she said it. “You should come over, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Would you mind?” asked off to the side, and another deep rumble he couldn’t make out. “He says he wouldn’t mind. See if the hardass will let you come over, I miss you.”

_ I miss you too _ , he thought, and said, “Of course you do, I’m the light of your life.”

“Just come visit me, dickhead!” she spat, and hung up.

-/-

James was stalling. He knew he was stalling- he’d finished the dishes and helped Penny finish her homework ages ago, and now he was sitting at his desk, reading a report he hadn’t taken in a single word of so far. He needed to go talk to Mercury. Figure out what was going on moving forward. He needed to-

-answer his phone. He picked it up without looking. “Ironwood.”

“Have I ever told you how sexy your phone answering voice is?”

Qrow. “Frequently, in fact.”

“Oh. Well. Never mind, then.” But Qrow was grinning, James could tell. “The kids enjoyed their nerd game.”

“That’s good. Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons is fun, if they pursue it long term they’re in for a real treat.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen the posters,” and James could see Qrow in his mind’s eye, sticking his tongue out playfully. “I just dropped off the last kid. Care for a little company before I head home? I couldn’t stay long but… it’d be nice to actually see you for a bit.”

It would be nice, but James shook his head. “Not the best night for it. I’m sorry.”

“It’s the first day, Ironwood, you already overwhelmed?”

“Something like that.” He pinched his eyes, suddenly exhausted. “We need to talk, actually. Coffee tomorrow?”

“Sure,” and now Qrow sounded concerned. “Everything okay?”

“I’m. Not sure yet. Tomorrow?”

“Yeah, all right. Tomorrow.” He paused to shout something at a passing car, and added, “I gotta go, see you tomorrow.”

And then he was gone. James scrubbed irritably at his face, feeling that bone-deep weariness settle in him. No time to sleep, he told himself. Duty first.

-/-

Mercury was sitting criss-cross on his bed, taking a screwdriver to his foot while heavy metal poured out of the phone beside him. He looked up when James knocked, but immediately returned his attention to his work.

“I think I stripped the threads,” he said. “Normally I’d just deal with it but I feel like you’ve actually got the tools I’d need to fix it.”

“I do,” James agreed. “They’re in my workroom.”

He led Mercury down the hall to the room that served as both his office and his workroom, and gestured for him to have a seat while he got out his big toolbox.

“Can you handle it, or do you need help?”

“I’ve got it.”

While he worked, James leaned on his desk and looked over his legs as well as he could from a distance. They were outdated, which wasn’t surprising- not everyone had access to state-of-the-art prosthetics, of course. But they were also too small.

“When was the last time you upgraded?”

“I got ‘em refitted about a year ago,” he said. “Or do you mean just tech in general? Because these are the ones I got while I was living with Qrow.”

He’d looked up at that, finally. His expression said far more than his words could have. All right, so it was time to talk about this.

“I only know a little bit about what happened with you and Qrow,” he said, straightening and folding his hands behind his back. “He hasn’t said much, so I only know the bare minimum.”

“I just bet.” Mercury finished fixing his leg and pushed the toolbox aside. “He probably told you that I was a bully, always picking on poor precious innocent Yangy-boo.”

James snorted. “Something like that,” he agreed. “He said you two were always fighting. That even after separating you two, you wouldn’t stop picking fights with her.”

“She picked just as many of those fights as I did.”

“All right.” James took a seat at the other end of the couch. “What do you want, Mercury?”

“What?”

“From this. Where we go from here- whether you leave or stay- it’s up to you.” He leaned back, ticking off on his fingers. “The facts, as they stand. Qrow and I are dating, and he’s someone who has hurt you a great deal in the past. Qrow is a significant part of my life, and while I’m willing to intervene somewhat, I can’t keep him out of your life entirely if you’re going to live here. And, I took on responsibility for your well-being, including your emotional well-being. So, what do  _ you _ want?”

Mercury gave him a suspicious look. “Are you trying to get me to go and pretend I had a say in it?”

“No. I’m trying to let you decide what you want for your own future. If you’re not comfortable being around Qrow and would rather live somewhere else, that’s okay- I completely understand. But if you’re okay with that, and you’d like to stay here, then you’re welcome to. It’s up to you.”

“And if I’m not comfortable with you dating Qrow at all? Would you break up with him?”

James laughed softly and shook his head. “That’s not going to happen. The decision is yours, but only within reason. I love Qrow, and we’ve fought enough for our relationship that I’m not willing to give up on that. I can take steps to keep the two of you separate, but leaving him entirely is never an option.”

“So it’s not  _ really _ up to me, then,” Mercury said, and at the pointed look from James, he huffed, and slouched down into the couch. “I don’t  _ actually _ have a choice here, you know that, right? I  _ mean _ ,” he added, when James made to protest, “You’re giving me a say, but I don’t  _ actually _ have a real choice in the matter. I’ve been bounced from home to home in this town for three years. I don’t have any options  _ left _ . The only reason they gave me to  _ you _ was because you’re new and they didn’t give you enough information to know you should turn me down. Hell, if my stupid social worker wasn’t such a fucking transphobe she’d have told you my name right off and you’d have  _ known _ who I was from the beginning. So no, I  _ don’t _ get to just ‘decide’ I’m going to leave just cause you’re dating the only half-decent guardian I’ve ever had. My ‘choice’ is to risk getting sent out of the county, or sticking it out.”

His speech done, he folded his arms and looked away, staring at some point over James’ desk. James sighed. Leaned his elbows on his knees.

“You’re right, of course,” he said softly. “I didn’t think about that.”

“...whatever.”

“We’ll make it work somehow. I can promise you that.”

“We’ll see.” Mercury pushed up to his feet and slouched out, leaving James with a lot to think about.

-/-

Qrow was feeling fidgety. There was something James was keeping from him, something important, and that bugged him- but James had made it clear he would tell Qrow tomorrow, over coffee and in person, so it wasn’t like he was  _ keeping secrets _ or anything.

Which didn’t make Qrow less fidgety, because what could be so important that James would have to talk to him in person? He went through a mental checklist of their relationship lately, double-checking that he hadn’t done something hugely improper, but he couldn’t hit on anything in particular.

Of course, it was always possible that he’d done something that would never occur to him as objectionable, but that James would consider seriously offputting. It wouldn’t be the first time; they had wildly different backgrounds and upbringing and had butt heads more than once over Qrow’s more permissive attitude toward raising children, for one.

(Though Qrow still maintained he was right. He was there to back his kids up while they figured out for themselves what they were able to handle- he couldn’t fight their battles for them forever, after all, better to let them learn how to fight them early. But disagreements about parenting philosophies was hardly dealbreaker material, at least Qrow didn’t think it was.)

Maybe it wasn’t anything bad at all, Qrow reminded himself. His other-shoe syndrome had proved wrong with James before, after all. Maybe James just wanted to talk about their moving in discussion more, without the kids there to overhear. As far as Qrow knew, James hadn’t told Penny yet, and he had his new foster child to consider as well.

(Or maybe it had to do with his new foster child. Maybe he was feeling overwhelmed with that realization of what he’d signed up for- Qrow could still remember his first night after bringing Tukson home, when he’d sat there talking to the kid while he unpacked his meagre belongings and it had hit him, square in the chest, that he was responsible for this kid’s wellbeing now. No amount of preparation and psyching himself up could have prevented that blow- it could only come with the experience. Maybe James was feeling that now, maybe that was what he wanted to talk about. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with Qrow at all. Maybe he was worrying over nothing.)

Qrow groaned and buried his face in his hands. “I need a drink,” he said to the air, and then started counting.

He made it to one hundred fifty seven before the urge pushed its way back down to the bottom of his mind. Not gone- never gone- but under control again. He let out a slow breath.

“No point in worrying,” Qrow told himself, pushing to his feet and heading into the kitchen. “It’s only till tomorrow afternoon, so it’s not like it’s long to wait. Just deal with it. You’re a grown up. Grown ups deal with things.”

“Dad said being grown up means knowing when to ask for help,” replied a voice somewhere near his middle. He looked down to find Ruby, carrying a glass over to the counter before turning to the fridge. He held it open and watched her silently while she carefully carried the milk carton over to the counter as well, then dragged a stool over to the counter so she could climb up and pour herself a glass.

“That’s true,” Qrow conceded, and, “That’s a pretty big glass of milk.”

“Yep.” She finished pouring her glass and climbed down from the stool, then carried the milk back to the fridge. She returned to her stool and dragged it over to a different cabinet, climbing up so she could take down the jar of Ovaltine they kept up there. Then dragged the stool again, grabbed a spoon from the drainer, and climbed up to start mixing her Ovaltine. Qrow pursed his lips thoughtfully.

“I thought we were going through milk and Ovaltine quicker than usual,” he said. “Do you come in here for a glass every night?”

“Yep.” Her Ovaltine mixed, it was now time to go through the entire process again to put it up. Qrow leaned his hip on the counter and watched her, arms folded, amusement tugging at his lips. “Jaune says he drinks a glass of milk every night before bed, and he’s a giant now.”

“Oh, I  _ see _ .” He covered his mouth with one hand, hiding his smile. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, kiddo, but drinking milk isn’t going to make you a giant.”

The look of utter betrayal she turned on him would have been heartbreaking if the situation weren’t so comical. He turned to the fridge to hide his expression, grabbing a glass and pouring some milk of his own. With his free hand, he fumbled behind the fridge for a second, before emerging with a plastic baggie containing a few Oreos.

“You tell your dad about these and you’re dead to me,” he said, holding out the bag so she could help herself.

“I won’t tell a soul!” she promised. “But only if you tell me why drinking milk won’t make me big. Because I  _ distinctly _ remember being told that it  _ would _ .”

“You were lied to,” he said bluntly. “No, not the eyes- all right, you weren’t  _ lied _ to, but you were told a really simplified version of the truth that didn’t really make it clear what you were supposed to be understanding.”

“Dad says half-truths are still lies.”

“He would.” Qrow sighed, and bit into an Oreo. (It drove Tai crazy that Qrow didn’t eat Oreos the ‘right’ way, which was of course why he did it.) “All right, so basically, milk  _ does _ help you grow, but it doesn’t  _ make _ you grow. No matter how much you drink, you’re not gonna get any taller or bigger than your genes say you’re going to.”

“My jeans?” She looked down at her pajamas. They had bats on them. “I’m not wearing jeans.”

“Not jeans, genes. Your genetic makeup- it’s the traits your parents passed down to you. Like whether you’ll be tall or short, for example.”

“But Dad is super tall!”

“He sure is,” Qrow agreed. He held up the last Oreo, letting her twist off half of it and then pouting when she pulled away with all of the creme. Oh well. “And my family tends to run tall, too, which is why Yang is shooting up so much.  _ You _ , on the other hand, seem to be taking more after your mom than anyone else in your family. So I hate to break it to you, but no amount of milk is going to make you taller.”

“That’s not fair.” She folded her arms and pouted. “All my friends are giants. I wanna be big, too!”

“Sorry, them’s the breaks.” He ruffled her hair, and gave her head a playful shake. “Chin up, maybe I’m wrong. Your dad didn’t get huge until he was in his teens, maybe you’re just waiting.”

She carried on pouting, drinking her Ovaltine in silence. He suppressed his smile and waited until her funk passed- she rarely pouted long.

“So what were you worrying about?” she finally said, turning a curious look on him, pouting forgotten.

“Heh? Oh, nothing major, just grown up problems.” At her disgruntled look, he took pity on her- he’d always hated hearing that at her age. “You ever had someone tell you they needed to talk about something important later, but didn’t tell you what it was about?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “A few weeks ago Penny told me she wanted to talk to me about something  _ very _ important, but we had to wait till we were alone. She was so serious! I thought she was dying or something! But it turns out she just wanted to tell me that-” She broke off, and turned a suspicious look on Qrow. “Wait, you  _ know _ , right?”

“I know everything.”

“No you don’t!”

He chuckled, giving her another playful shake before pulling her in for a noogie. Once she’d wriggled away, she gave him her serious look again. He grinned.

“All right, you’re right, I’m actually pretty brainless. But I know what you’re talking about.” He grabbed her empty glass and his and moved them over to the sink, then sat back down beside her. “So Penny told you the big secret, huh?”

“Yeah. She thought it was this super critical thing, but I don’t know why? It’s not like she suddenly stopped being  _ Penny _ .”

“Heh. It’s pretty important for her, though. She must trust you a lot if she was willing to tell you.”

“She said I’m the very best friend she’s ever had,” Ruby confirmed, and then bit her lip. “Um, I think she might be the very best friend I’ve ever had too? But I already told Weiss she was my bff, too. Is that okay? Am I allowed to have more than one very best friend?”

“I don’t see why not. You can have as many as you want. Not like there’s a law against it.”

“What if there was?”

“Henh?”

“What if there was a law? And it said you could only have one very best friend, and that was it.”

“Then you find ways to circumvent it,” Qrow said, shrugging. “Lots of things have been illegal, that didn’t make them wrong.”

“Like what?”

“Well…” He considered, and, “Once it was illegal for people like Penny to live as themselves, because people thought it was bad. Once it was illegal for people like me and Jimmy to be together, because we’re both men. Once it was illegal for people like your ma and your dad to be together, because they weren’t the same race.”

“That’s dumb.”

“Yeah.” He grinned, and ruffled her hair. “That’s why we got rid of ‘em.”

“I’m glad. Penny is happy, and you and Mr. Ironwood are happy, and Dad- um…” She frowned. “Well, he  _ was _ happy with Mom, right?”

(In the back of his mind, that ever-present shadow raised its head and sniffed the air, and Qrow wrapped his metaphorical hands around its neck until it subsided. Not here, not with her.)

“He was very happy,” he assured Ruby, who was looking up at him with her usual cheerfully curious look, oblivious to the war raging in the back of his mind. “She was, too.”

“I’m glad,” she said, taking his hand so she could wrap his arm around her. His face softened and he pulled her into a one armed hug.

“You ready to head back to bed yet?”

“I guess. Oh, wait!” She dropped his arm and ran over to the doorway. “Measure me before I do?”

She was referring to the series of marks on the entry between the dining and living rooms, where dashes all up its length marked the heights of her and Yang over the years, alongside all of Qrow’s various foster kids, a permanent record of their time in his life. There was a pencil hanging on a string from a pushpin, added after the pencil in the drawer kept disappearing.

“All right,” he said, taking the pencil and gesturing for her to stand against the wall. Once he’d got her to hold still and stop standing on her toes, he swiped a quick mark over her head. “There, you see?” He tugged her away from the wall and pointed at the mark. He wrote her name and the date next to it. “You’ve grown a tiny bit since last month.”

“Oh!”

She looked pleased, and he was pleased to have pleased her; he reached down and lifted her up, carrying her down the hall to her room so he could put her to bed.

Nora was fast asleep and snoring when he tip-toed in; he pressed a finger to his lips at Ruby, and crept carefully over the toys, clothes, and bookbags that lived on their floor despite his and Tai’s best efforts to get them to clean their room, depositing Ruby onto the top bunk.

“Goodnight, Uncle Qrow,” Ruby whispered, beckoning him close enough that she could kiss his forehead, which got her a silent chuckle.

“Night, kiddo.” He returned the gesture and backed up, checking on Nora as he did. She had kicked her blankets off; he pulled them up over her, then bent over and rummaged around on the floor until he’d found her Mad King plush. He tucked it in next to her, and slipped out before he managed to wake her up.

(She’d gotten the plush from Jaune’s oldest brother, apparently. She won him in a bet, she said. He kept meaning to have a word with Jaune’s brother about making bets with his kids; if nothing else, they were going to end up with either a gambling problem or a lot of clutter.)

The house was quiet, apart from the sounds of his family sleeping. It was dark, apart from the nightlight in the hallway and the moonlight peeking through the living room curtains. The world was still and gentle, welcoming.

Qrow was tired.

“I need a drink,” he said to the shadows, and went to his room to collapse until morning.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really love writing Ruby.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James talks to Qrow, Mercury settles in, and Tai has a mystery to solve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating the character tags, now that I have a better idea of who the major players in this will be.

-/-

Qrow managed to get through the day without letting his nerves show through  _ too _ much, mostly by putting his kids on catch-up study time for the day- a useful tool he’d hit on a few years ago. He left the kids to their own devices, letting them work on anything they were struggling with, making his rounds in the room to help them and answer their questions. It gave his kids a chance to work with him one-on-one, but more importantly, working with them made it far easier for him to focus on teaching than if he was standing at the front of the classroom. It kept him out of his head, and kept that shadow in the back of his mind quiet, at least for awhile.

Finally, finally, evening came. He said goodbye to his kids, spent some time chatting with parents, waited for Tai to pick up Ruby and Nora, and headed out to Release the Grounds to meet James.

James was already there, their drinks already waiting at their table. He greeted Qrow with a quick kiss and sat back down, and Qrow frowned as he took his own seat.

“Am I in trouble?”

James raised an eyebrow at him. “No? Why would you be in trouble?”

“I don’t know. But you kissed me like I’m in trouble. That was a joke,” he added, because James looked baffled. He took a sip of his drink; it was overloaded with far too much sugar, just the way he liked it. He fidgeted a little. “So what’s up?  _ Am _ I in trouble?”

James sighed and shook his head. “You’re not in trouble. It’s about my new foster child.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s Mercury.”

“...oh.” Qrow was glad he was sitting down; he didn’t think his legs would be able to hold him up. The shadow in the back of his mind grinned, his grip tightened on his cup. “Well… okay then.”

“I just wanted to let you know,” James said, reaching over and resting a hand over Qrow’s, carefully pulling the cup from him before he crushed it. “It didn’t seem like a good idea to just spring it on you when you came over.”

“No, yeah, that makes sense.” He took his cup back and downed a huge gulp of it, just for something, and wished for the burn of whiskey and the cool flask in his hand. “So what now?”

“I don’t know,” James admitted. “I told Mercury about you, told him what we did moving forward was up to him. But Qrow, I’m at a complete loss.”

“Yeah, you’re in way over that pretty head of yours,” Qrow said. “Why would they give you Mercury to start off with?”

“According to him, every other home in the county has sent him away.” He scrubbed at his temples, mussed hair that was normally far more kempt than currently. “Qrow… help me? I’ve never asked for details about what happened but now I think I need to know.”

“All right.” Qrow nodded, brushed his bangs up out of his eyes. “All right, what do you  _ already _ know? About Mercury, I mean. His situation.”

“I know he was taken from an abusive home.” James ticked off on his fingers while he spoke. “I know he’s been shuffled around from home to home for at least three years. I know his last guardian was arrested a few months ago. And I know that when he lived with you, he and Yang got into fights a lot. By the way, he says she picked as many of those as he did. I believe him.”

“So do I.” He ran his hands through his hair again. It was standing up even more than usual now. “That was around the time Yang met her mom. I  _ definitely _ believe she started a lot of those fights. And that’s a whole other list of problems we’re not going into,” he added, jabbing a stern finger at James.

“Of course,” James murmured. He’d long since learned not to ask questions about Qrow’s sister. Instead he rubbed irritably at his forehead. “I am stuck between a rock and a hard place here.”

Qrow nodded. “All right, so I don’t know how up to date my info is, but from what I know, his dad was an alcoholic.” When James grimaced, Qrow nodded. “Yeah, I'm sure you can imagine how well that went over. I  _ think _ Leo gave him to me hoping it would get me to quit altogether but we both know how well that was going to work.” An eyeroll. “I would recommend not yelling or raising your voice at him, but he really  _ hates _ when people try to talk gently to him. Snark worked out really well for me, I don’t think it’d have the same effect coming from you.”

James nodded. He could understand that, sort of; Qrow had a world-weary, done-with-this-nonsense aura to him that meant snark was expected from him. James was just as prone to snark as Qrow, his demeanor just made it sound more smug than he meant it to.

“I’m not generally in the habit of yelling at children.”

“No, but the kids you’re around are good kids and don’t really give you a reason. Merc is gonna be another story. Besides,” Qrow added, “You  _ have _ got a temper in there, and the last thing you need to do is lose it where this kid is concerned.”

James opened his mouth to argue, and then sighed. “All right, fair enough.” He tapped his fingers in a nervous cadence on his cup, and, “He said you were the only half-decent guardian he’d ever had.”

“Aw, geez.” Qrow slumped down in his chair. “You’re kidding, right?” He ran his hands through his hair again. “Dammit, kid.”

“Qrow-“

“I  _ tried _ , you know. I really did.” He straightened and hunched over his drink. “I really wanted to help this kid, I tried everything I could think of. Just nothing  _ worked _ . But, it was the girls, you know? He couldn’t stop fighting, and, I don’t mean arguing like they do with each other, I mean actual violence. And I couldn’t leave my girls in that kind of situation and I couldn’t keep him away from them without isolating him and in the end it was just a situation that there was no way to win. I had a choice to make and I- I don’t think I made the right one. I think I did more harm than I was trying to prevent.”

While he said this, he hunched lower and lower until his forehead was touching the table. James reached over brushed gentle fingers over his hair, offering some form of soothing until Qrow finally sat up, slouching down in the chair.

“I don’t like this, Jim.”

“It’s not my favorite, either,” James pointed out. “We’ll just have to find a way to make it work. Until then, I- think maybe it’s best if we put our moving in discussions on hold.”

“Yeah, no, of course.” Qrow snorted. “Don’t think Nora’s too keen on the idea anyway, honestly.”

“I’ll try not to take that personally,” James teased, shooting for some way of lightening the mood and falling short of the mark. Qrow just gave him a grim smile.

“I don’t think it’s that she  _ doesn’t _ want to live with you and Penny, it’s just that she- uh, well, when I asked her, she sort of thought I meant  _ all _ of us, me and Tai and the girls too. I don’t think she wants to leave them.”

“There is that to consider too,” James agreed. “If you leave that knocks Tai down to a single-income household, and him taking care of both of his daughters alone. I’d hate to put him in the lurch just because I want you and Nora closer to me.”

Something warm hummed in the base of Qrow’s chest. He managed a more genuine smile this time. “Well, if Nora had her way we’d all just get a big house together. But then, I think if Nora had her way Ren and Jaune would probably live with us too.”

James chuckled. “Given I’m suggesting this because I like having you around as much as possible, I don’t think I have room to argue. At least we can sneak off in the middle of the night if nothing else. Nora doesn’t have that option with her friends.”

“True. All right. We’ll shelve any discussion of moving in together until we get this Mercury situation sorted out. And I’ll, I dunno, talk with Nora more seriously about how she feels about the idea overall.” He leaned on one hand and drummed a tattoo on the table with the other. “There is one thing that’s bothering me, though. You were open with your social worker about our relationship, right? My name should have been on Mercury’s papers as a previous guardian, why didn’t it come up at any earlier point?”

“I definitely mentioned you a few times. I didn’t want any later funny business about my sexuality to come up.”

“So the echo answers, why didn’t it come up?”

“Mercury did say that they withheld some information so I wouldn’t know not to take him on. You think this was a set-up?”

“If it was, it was foul play. I don’t doubt you can work with Mercury, but I’m a factor and my presence is going to throw this in the grinder. Actually, I should probably stay away for awhile.”

James didn’t bother trying to mask his disappointment. “That’s probably best.”

“Hey, come on, holster those things. We can still see each other, just, you know, not at the house.”

“And since I don’t have a live-in babysitter, that means we see each other when I can arrange for someone to come over and watch the kids.”

“Feh.” Qrow shrugged. “We’ll make it work.”

-/-

They lingered at Release the Grounds for awhile longer, neither ready to part and resume their busy schedules. It was rare for them to get a spare hour or so to just sit in a coffee shop and sip coffee or, in Qrow’s case, sugar with a small amount of coffee added.

They left together, but once they reached Qrow’s truck he wrapped his arms around James’ waist and burrowed close to him, burying his face in James’ shoulder.

“I hate splitting up when I know it’ll be ages before I see you in person again,” he grumbled into James’ shirt. James rumbled a laugh around him and wrapped his arms around Qrow’s shoulders.

“I know, I feel the same way. That’s why I suggested moving in together.”

“It’s not fair.”

“I know.”

Qrow groaned long and low into his shoulder, and then finally pulled away. “All right. I should go before I change my mind.”

“All right.” A quick kiss, and, “Love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you too,” Qrow said, waving that away as if it was nothing. “See you around, hot stuff.”

-/-

Mercury was sitting on the front steps of the house when Winter walked up. She stopped short, mouth forming an ‘oh’ and eyebrows climbing up to her hairline.

“D-“

“Mercury,” he said, cutting her off with a glare. “It’s Mercury.”

She looked him over, and, “Ah. Right. Mercury.” She adjusted her satchel awkwardly on her shoulder and stiffened her posture a little. “Is Mr. Ironwood home?”

“He’s out cosying with his boyfriend, probably.”

“Right. And Penny?”

“What am I, her keeper?”

Winter scowled. “I’m only asking because I don’t think Mr. Ironwood would leave her- or you- at home alone long term.”

“Well my bus just went by about five minutes ago,” he said. “And he told me this morning he was going to be home by four thirty, so he’d trust me to handle being on my own for that small amount of time, rather than go through the trouble of a babysitter.” He shrugged. “And Penny went over to a friend’s house after school. I think old General Hardass wants some alone time so we can bond or something.”

“General Hardass?”

“Yeah, you know, the guy who has a million rules? Most of them really dumb stuff that acts like I can’t take care of myself? That guy.”

“You shouldn’t call him that.”

“I’ll call him anything I damn well please.” He snorted. “Figures you’d be into him. Got a crush on him or something?” When she leveled a stern glare at him, he gave a nasty sort of laugh. “Oh, right. Finally came out of that closet, huh? So what are you doing here, anyway?”

“Mr. Ironwood helps me with my homework sometimes,” she said, adjusting her grip on her bag again. “And it’s… nice, being able to come here. Father  _ approves _ of Mr. Ironwood, or at least who he thinks he is.”

She finally moved to sit down on the steps, and to the surprise of some hypothetical onlooker, but not to either of them, he slid aside to make room for her. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, her chin in her hands.

“So tell me about Ironwood,” he said. “What’s he like? You obviously think he’s the bee’s knees but that could mean anything.”

“He’s… kind,” she said slowly. “And gentle. He tries. He listens. We have a similar sense of humor, which is refreshing. He’s very patient with Penny. He can be overbearing, and he doesn’t always hold his temper, but he  _ does _ always apologize, which is more than many adults I’ve known. His questionable taste in men aside-“ Which got her a snorting laugh, “-he doesn’t really have many downsides. And what he presents is genuine. If he says something, he means it.”

Mercury was silent for a long time, and, “My last guardian was a cultist, I think. He was always talking about how things would be when the Queen returned, and how she would cleanse the world of humanity’s sins. I definitely think there was at least one body buried in the backyard and I’m pretty sure he had either a shrine or a torture chamber in the basement- or hell, maybe both- because we weren’t allowed down there but he went down there a  _ lot _ .”

“It  _ could _ have just been personal space.”

“Maybe!” He gestured irritably. “But he also got  _ arrested _ \- for, get this,  _ unpaid parking tickets _ . And other traffic violations. Turned out he had outstanding warrants in like fifteen states. So they arrested him and then me and Em- Emerald, that’s the girl who was living there too- got sent away. But you know? Cultist or not, murderer or not, torture chamber or not, it… wasn’t a bad time. We were  _ happy _ . We were together, and if we could stick it out for just a few more years, we’d be free. Now she’s living up in Argus with some guy and I’m… here. With old General Hardass and Uncle Qrow back in my life.”

He leaned forward and rested his forehead on his knees, while Winter watched him impassively for a long moment. She considered his words, and nodded firmly to herself.

“Would you like to come out with my friends and myself tomorrow evening? We were planning to go to the roller rink. You would be welcome to join us.”

Mercury sneered into one knee. “Are all your friends like you?”

“They’re… like me in some ways. Very much not like me in others. I think you would like them.”

“Yeah?”

“The offer is open. We’re a mixed age group, so you wouldn’t be out of place.”

“I’ll… think about it. If only to get out of this house. If the General allows it, I mean.”

“Unless he has something specific planned, I don’t see why he wouldn’t,” she said, after a grimace at the reminder of the nickname. “I can ask him for you, if you like?”

Mercury was silent for a long time after that, before, “Why are you being so nice to me? You didn’t used to be nice to me.”

“I did so. You just liked pushing my buttons when I tried.”

“Yeah  _ right _ .”

“All right, I suppose I could have been nicer.”

“If you’d tried I’d have punched you in the throat.”

“Are you going to punch me in the throat now?”

“I’m still thinking about it.”

“Let me know when you’ve decided.”

“Hn.”

-/-

When James got home, only a little bit later than he'd intended, Mercury and Winter were sitting on his doorstep; Winter had a book open in her lap, a pencil and a pad of paper balanced awkwardly on one knee, while Mercury played with his phone, which had acquired some decals at some point between today and last night.

James sighed, and got out of the car, turning his attention to Winter after a brief greeting to Mercury.

“Hello, Winter,” he said. “Did you need something?”

“Sir!” She said, straightening a little and knocking her notebook aside. “I needed some help with my science homework, I was, um, going to ask if you could help me. I’m having trouble understanding the material.”

“Of course, you know I’m always happy to help you. Why don’t you come in- I have a little time before I have to start dinner. Will you be joining us?”

“I shouldn’t impose,” she said, which usually meant that she didn’t think she could clear it with her father, and stood up to lead the way into the house. At the door, James reached out a hand to stop Mercury before he could follow.

“We need to talk later,” he said. “Not while Winter’s here- we’ll talk after she leaves.”

“Whatever,” Mercury said, rolling his eyes and pulling his shoulder away to follow Winter into the house.

Inside, Winter had already laid her books on the table, so James took a seat beside her and pulled the assignment sheet toward him. Mercury stood awkwardly in the doorway for a moment, ignored by both, before sneering and turning to trod up to his room.

-/-

Tai was pretty used to Qrow not coming home on Friday nights. Granted, he used to actually come home and then go out drinking later, but after his last relapse back in December, he’d stopped coming home at all, staying out indescribably late and then sneaking in sometime around three.

(He probably didn’t think Tai knew when he got home, but their bathrooms shared a wall and Qrow sang in the shower.)

He didn’t like to confront him about it. He had his ground rules- no drinking in the house, no drunkenness around the kids- and Qrow had faithfully kept to both those and his promise to Summer ever since he'd moved in. It wasn’t Tai’s place, otherwise, to tell Qrow what to do.

At least he knew at Junior’s Qrow would keep to his limit.

Unless he had another relapse, of course. Roman’s dedication to holding Qrow to his self-imposed limits only went so far, after all.

“Taaaaiiii~”

...and speak of the devil, here was Roman now. Tai stilled his buggy and prepared himself to be hit on, and turned to greet the cheery cry.

“Hi, Roman.”

“Well well well, if it isn’t my  _ favorite _ dad bod. Out here on your own? Where are those  _ charming _ kiddies of yours? With Qrow, I suppose?”

What? “What? Um, they’re at Ren’s for Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons.”

“Oooh, they’re getting into ddnmd? Excellent!” He beamed, so Tai assumed that meant he meant it, and then added, “And how has Qrow been lately? I haven’t seen him in months, I’m starting to think he forgot where to find me.”

_ What _ . “He… hasn’t been going to Junior’s?”

“Not while I’m there.”

“Oh… well… maybe…”

“I’m  _ always _ there, dad bod. I pretty much run the place these days, at least on weekends.”

“You’re not there now,” Tai pointed out.

“Yes, well.” Roman shrugged. “We’re doing renovations right now. Junior wants to appeal more to the younger crowd. I think he’s trying to turn the place into a nightclub.”

He scowled at that, but Tai wasn’t paying much attention. He frowned. “So… the place is closed right now?”

“Yup.”

“Then where has Qrow been going?”

For a moment, just the barest fraction of a second, Tai thought Roman looked worried, but it must have been a trick of the light because he immediately shrugged, and, “Maybe he found somewhere else to drink.”

“I’m a little afraid of that,” Tai admitted, and scrubbed one hand through his hair. Roman just clapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, relax. He’s a big boy, he can make his own mistakes.” He gave Tai a reassuring look, but Tai only managed a weak smile in return.

“I know. Look, I have to get going- I’ve got frozens… I’ll see you around, Roman.”

“Sure.”

The trouble, of course, (Tai thought, as he left Roman standing in the middle of the cereal aisle), was that unlike Roman, Qrow’s mistakes didn’t happen in a vacuum, and affected more than just himself. Qrow had a family, had a daughter to look after. If he’d found somewhere new to drink, that suggested that he’d stopped holding to his limits.

And Tai knew what lay on the other end of that road, and would rather not go down it again.

(Of course, there was always the chance that Qrow was going somewhere  _ else _ on Fridays, but Tai could think of nowhere he’d go that he wouldn’t just say.)

(Stil, it wouldn’t be fair to accuse Qrow. He’d ask. Maybe it was something innocent. Maybe there was nothing wrong. Maybe he had no reason to worry.)

-/-

Roman frowned as Tai walked away, and then took out his phone. He scrolled through his contacts to one listed as “Peaches”, and sent off a quick text:  _ Darling, I have a favor to ask _ .

After a few moments, a reply.

**Yes?**

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mercury and Winter have an interesting dynamic that I'm really looking forward to exploring because I was _not_ expecting it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is starting to settle in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some slight out-of-order wonkiness going on here, since everything happens in the same evening and is unconnected enough that I didn't need to chronological it. Also, logically the first scene should have been in the previous chapter but I didn't think of it till I'd posted the previous one, so it had to go here instead.

-/-

Penny was glad for the chance to play Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons with her friends so soon after their first game. She rode with Sun over to Ren’s house after school (her father had arranged it, since he was meeting with Qrow to talk to him about Mercury), Sun giving her a play-by-play summary of their game the previous night. By the sounds of it, they’d had an intense adventure, meeting on a stagecoach across the resident country and then forming a fast bond when their group was attacked by a giant bird monster.

“-and then  _ my _ character swung her scythe and just- beheaded the darn thing, like it was nothing! It was so cool! And it meant I got our first boss kill, I couldn’t believe it!”

“That is amazing!” Penny said, bouncing a little in her seat. “Do you think my character will be that cool?”

“I bet your character will be almost as cool as mine,” Sun said proudly. “Which is a  _ really _ high bar to clear. Why don’t you tell me about them?”

“Um, she is a gladiator,” Penny began, and Sun nodded.

“Always a strong start.”

“-and, she has a very special ability called polarity, that lets her control metal. Father helped me make her character sheet. I am  _ very _ excited.”

“Oh, man, she sounds REALLY cool!”

Penny blushed a little, and added, “I am surprised you did not make your character a winged monkey.”

He pouted at that, and folded his arms to enhance the effect. “I was  _ going _ to, but Weiss beat me to it! And she said if I made mine a winged monkey too then she would never speak to me again, which doesn’t  _ sound _ that bad in theory but I  _ like _ talking to Weiss. It’s funny to wind her up and I can’t do that if she’s giving me the cold shoulder.”

-/-

After Winter left, James went looking for Mercury, and found him in his room, still playing with his phone. James knocked lightly on the door.

“Mercury? It’s time to get dinner started. Come downstairs, we can talk while I work.”

Mercury looked down at his phone, and for a moment James thought he might protest, but after a few seconds he sighed and shoved his phone into his shirt, making a disgruntled noise as he slid off of his bed.

“Am I in trouble?”

“A little bit, but there’s other things we need to talk about too.” He tried to look and sound reassuring; judging by Mercury's disbelieving "tch" as he pushed past him and headed downstairs, he’d failed. He followed. “Any preferences on dinner?”

Mercury shrugged, folded his hands behind his head. “Who cares? Food’s food.”

“You  _ are _ allowed a preference,” James reminded him, and opened a couple of cabinets. “How does yakisoba sound?”

“Yakisoba?” Mercury wrinkled his nose. “Whatever, it’s fine.”

“Do you not like yakisoba?” James tossed a pillow of noodles on the counter, and took down a box of sauce mixes. “There are other options, if you’d prefer something else.”

“I said it’s fine.  _ Gods _ . What is  _ with _ you?”

James pursed his lips, considered, and tossed a pouch of yakisoba mix onto the counter. “All right. As you like.”

While he turned his attention to making dinner, Mercury reached into his shirt and took his phone out again. He held it up.

“Are you aware that you left a bunch of cct store credits on this thing?”

“Yes, of course. I put them on there so you could buy some music or books or anything else you might want.”

“ _ Why _ ?”

James raised an eyebrow at him. “This may come as a shock to you, Mercury, but I  _ want _ you to have nice things. I want  _ any _ child I’m responsible for to have nice things.” When Mercury still looked mutinous, he added, “I started planning and making arrangements when I applied to be a foster parent. It wasn't a spontaneous decision.”

A slow nod. “So… this is all just stuff for your foster kid, not for me specifically?”

“I have no idea why that matters, but if it means something to you, then yes. I would do this for you or any other child they sent me.”

Mercury gave him a look seething with mistrust, and then nodded slowly. He set the phone down on the table. “I bought a bunch of music last night. And a monthly to Music Box.”

“What level?”

“Just the cheap one. You didn’t leave  _ that _ many credits on it.”

James chuckled. “Remind me when it renews and I’ll make sure it’s covered.”

A slow nod, and, “I don’t…  _ owe _ you anything for this, do I? I mean, you’re not going to make me work it off or anything? You gotta tell me now, don’t just spring it on me.”

James looked up from chopping vegetables to give him a close, studying look, and turned back to chopping after a moment, shaking his head a little. “No, you don’t owe me for it. I  _ do _ expect you to help out with household chores, but I also expect that of Penny, and it’s not transactional- the house needs keeping, and you should have things. Both of those would be true even if the other weren’t.”

“Tch. Housework’s  _ boring _ .”

“I know. It still has to be done.”

Mercury groaned, and for a moment James felt like he was talking to any other teenage boy. He gave a tiny smile to the vegetables as he dumped them into the broth.

“Anyway, I made an appointment for you with a friend of mine. It’s about time you got your legs refitted, and he’ll talk to you about repairs and upgrades while you’re with him.”

This got him a bitter look, and James felt the slight slip in the wall between them build itself back into place. Mercury turned to his phone with a scowl.

“I can handle my own repairs. I don’t need some doc to hold my hand.”

“You still need a professional to check you over and handle the big stuff. I know you like to be independent and it’s  _ good _ to be able to handle your own needs, but there’s limits to what should be expected of you.” Mercury didn’t stop scowling, so James went on, “If it makes you feel better, designing and repairing prosthetics is  _ literally _ my job, and even  _ I _ have to give my repairs over to a second party sometimes.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s true. I have standing appointments, twice a year. In fact you’ll be seeing the same doctor I do.”

“And why is  _ that _ supposed to make me feel better? If you’re trying to get me to trust you just cause we’ve got some bogus  _ common ground _ going on- look, just don’t bother. It doesn’t matter.”

“Let’s talk about something else then,” James said, after studying him closely for a moment. “Why did you leave school after lunch?”

“How do you even  _ know _ about that?”

“Your teacher happens to have me on speed dial. She let me know.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake. So she’s just gonna call and tattle on me whenever I put a foot out of line?”

“Probably.”

“Well that’s just fucking great. Is that why they put me in her class? Because she’s your boo or something?”

“She’s my sister, and no, at least probably not. I didn’t have anything to do with what class you were put in. Actually, I did want to ask- I know Yang has her class this year too. Are you okay?”

A chill swept through the room; Mercury’s expression was ice. “Ask me that again and I’ll deck you,” he spat. “And I’m  _ fine _ . So am I grounded or what? Just get it over with so I can go back to my room.”

“You’re not grounded, at least not this time. If it continues to be a problem you might be, or I’ll handle it another way.”

“Why do you even care?”

“Because your education is important, and it’s my responsibility to make sure you get one. Did something happen?”

“ _ No _ , nothing  _ happened _ . I just got sick of being there. School is stupid, the public education system is a joke, my classmates are all jerks, and let’s face it, I’m probably not gonna survive to see graduation anyway. So who cares if I’m there or somewhere else?”

James looked up from his work and gave Mercury a sharp look. “Why do you think you’re not going to survive to see graduation?”

Mercury just looked unimpressed. “Come on, General. You gotta ask? I’ve seen the statistics. People like me don’t tend to have much staying power.”

“Hmm.” A frown. “I’ve seen those statistics as well. They’re not promising, and they tend to be even worse for young people in your situation.”

“You mean disabled trans kids in the foster system,” Mercury said, a kind of malicious glee to his voice. “Yeah, I know. Amazing, who could have imagined that I wouldn’t expect to survive high school?”

“Well,” James said, “I can’t make any promises about what will happen in the future, but I can promise that as long as you live with me, I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe. Believe it or not, I would rather you didn’t become another statistic.”

“I guess that wouldn’t look too good on you as a foster parent.”

James sighed. “If that’s what you need to tell yourself, then all right.” He gave the soup a quick stir before moving over to sit with him. “But mostly I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

-/-

Penny was so excited to join her friends in ddnmd that for awhile, all thought of Mercury was driven out of her mind. It was easy enough for her to join the group; they were all having a stayover at a coaching inn so her character was just written in as a fellow guest, who would be joining the coach when it left.

Sun’s brother had been uninterested in continuing as their table-master, so Ren’s mother had stepped in, for tonight at least, and she wove such a beautiful story around them that at times they grew so engrossed they forgot they were meant to be  _ interacting _ with the story.

Eventually, Mrs. Ren called a break, and went off to do her own thing for a bit while they ate snacks and talked. It was Ruby who drew Mercury back to her mind, asking about their new foster child between mouthfuls of popcorn.

“Oh!” Penny said. “His name is Mercury. I do not think he is a very nice boy, but Father says we must make allowances and be patient.”

“Mercury?” Ruby said thoughtfully. “Isn’t that the name-” -at the same time that Nora broke in with, “Mercury! Wow! That means Ozpin came through after all!”

All eyes were now on Nora. “What do you mean?” Sun asked. “What has Ozpin got to do with it?”

“Oh, that’s right, you don’t know,” Nora said. “Okay, so, you know how Ozpin was Santa last winter?”

They all nodded that, yes, they were aware.

(The subject of whether Ozpin was Santa himself, or was intimate friends- a term Ruby had recently learned and brought forth- and filling in on that account, had been debated endlessly on the playground last winter. Ruby and Sun had both been sure that he could not truly be Santa, on the grounds that he was neither fat nor bearded, but Ren had pointed out that as Santa was a legend centuries old and the current image of him was a recent affectation- a term  _ he _ had learned just that week- then it would be unfair to hold Ozpin to such standards, and Jaune had thought that made a lot more sense than either Ruby or Sun’s arguments. Nora had been uncharacteristically silent in these discussions; she wasn’t sure she believed in Santa, but she  _ did _ believe in Ozpin, and that was good enough for her.)

“Well, I made Uncle Qrow take me to see Santa on Christmas Eve and I asked Ozpin if he would arrange for him and Mercury to see each other again so they could talk and maybe be happy again, and he said he’d see what he could do.” She folded her arms. “I thought he’d given up when nothing happened but obviously he was just biding his time for Mr. Ironwood to get his license so he could arrange that. That’s pretty smart of him, actually.”

“Oh, that is why!” Penny said. “Mercury said it was probably foul play by his social worker.”

“That’s also a possibility,” Nora agreed, having had her own history with bad social workers. “But it’s probably the Ozpin thing.”

-/-

The house was quiet when Tai got home. Ruby and Nora were over at Ren’s playing Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons, and Yang- well-

Yang was the only one of his kids not getting involved with the game the others were so thrilled with. Tai had asked a couple of probing questions about her lack of interest, and had concluding based on her answers that she just didn’t want to seem too much like a little kid. She was, after all, a paltry seven months away from being thirteen, and thus couldn’t be seen to be playing pretend like some  _ child _ .

Tai hadn’t forced her, but he hoped she soon grew out of this need to be seen as too grown-up to have fun.

In the meantime, he let her go play- er,  _ hang out _ , at the Belladonna house with Blake and Ilia while her sister and cousin went to Ren’s house to play their game. And then came home to put groceries away alone in an empty house.

He should be thrilled, he knew. It wasn’t often he got his house to himself, and he knew lots of parents would jump at such privacy. But then, those parents had someone to enjoy that privacy  _ with _ .

And they weren’t stuck in a quiet, empty house, worrying about their brother with nothing to distract them but a sleepy dog.

“I need a hobby,” he told Zwei, who perked up in case the conversation involved petting or feeding him, and then lay his head back down when he realized that there would be neither in his immediate future. Tai went on putting away groceries, ignoring this. “I mean, I’m a cool guy. I shouldn’t be moping around on a Friday night just because my kids are out and Qrow is- well, wherever Qrow is.”

Zwei looked up again, then whined and rolled over, exposing his soft tummy to the world, just in case. This time Tai noticed, and knelt to give him a few courtesy scritches.

“It’s probably nothing. Maybe he’s just been going over to see James. Maybe he didn’t say anything because he didn’t think it needed saying.” Zwei yipped at him, and he sighed. “Yeah, I know. He’s a grown up, he can make his own choices. It’s not like he’s done anything out of line. I should trust him.”

Another yip; Tai gave the dog a final pat and got back to the groceries, but only made it as far as putting away the milk cartons before the quiet emptiness of the house hit him again, and he huffed.

“I  _ really _ need to get a hobby," he repeated. "Or, a girlfriend."

-/-

Yang liked hanging out at the Belladonna’s house. She liked that Kali left them alone rather than needing to watch them every minute- something Yang could understand her parents doing for Ruby and Nora, but she didn’t  _ need _ to be chaperoned like they did. She was  _ twelve _ . She was going to be thirteen soon, she  _ might as well _ be thirteen now, it was so close. Ilia was  _ already _ thirteen. Blake was even closer than Yang was.

Anyway, Kali left them alone unless she was offering them snacks, and had once even let them stay at the house  _ by themselves _ while she walked down the street to return a borrowed book to a neighbor. They’d been in the house themselves, alone,  _ unsupervised _ , for a whole  _ thirty minutes _ before she’d come back, and the worse thing that had happened was Ilia spilling her nail polish.

(They’d cleaned it up, of course. They were very-nearly-almost-teenagers, not  _ animals _ .)

Besides, Blake’s house was big and not nearly as crowded as the tiny house Yang lived in. They could spread out in one corner of the living room to do their homework and not worry about anyone coming through and tripping over them.

“So…” Yang said, setting her pencil down. “Mercury, huh?”

“Oh, my gods,” Blake said, putting her own pencil down and looking up with a slightly horrified look. “What in the  _ world _ is he doing in our grade? What is he doing in our  _ class _ ?”

“Who is Mercury?” Ilia asked. “He was  _ really _ giving you the stinkeye at lunch.”

“He’s one of Uncle Qrow’s old foster children,” Yang explained, at the same time Blake said, “He’s a  _ jerk _ .”

They exchanged a look; Yang pressed on. “I heard from Coco that last year his old guardian got  _ arrested _ at the end of the year, so he wasn’t able to sit his exams, and since his grades were already so bad they just made him repeat the year. That’s what  _ I _ heard.”

“Are you going to tell your uncle?”

“...I don’t know.” Yang picked up her pencil again, and doodled in the margins on her work. “I mean, he’s going to find out eventually.”

“Does it matter, though? He was in Glynda’s class last year, I heard, and it never mattered.”

“Yeah, but  _ I _ wasn’t there with him. It’s not the same.” She looked uncomfortable. “I mean, what if he comes in to pick me up, or has a meeting with Glynda? Or hell, what if he just goes in to see her? They’re friends, you know. It could happen.”

“Well he didn’t manage to find out any time last year,” Ilia pointed out. “I don’t see why he  _ has _ to know, and if it would upset him to find out-“

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna lie to him,” Yang said. “But on the other hand, he sent Mercury  _ away _ because we couldn’t stop fighting. What if he tries to get him transferred out of the class or something? Or  _ me _ ?”

“Then you wouldn’t be in Glynda’s class anymore,” Blake said.

Yang considered this for a moment. Not being in Glynda’s class anymore. “...I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

“Maybe you’ll be put in my class,” Ilia added hopefully.

-/-

“So how are things going with the General?” Emerald asked, when Mercury called her that night.

“They’re fine. He’s Glynda’s brother, apparently.”

“Wow, it is a  _ really _ small world.”

“Right?” He flopped back onto his pillow and shook his head. “Sometimes it feels like my life is a fictional story being written by a dude with a very small pool of characters to pull from to fill it out.”

“If it is, he’s an asshole.”

“Tell me about it. My life  _ sucks _ . Why can’t I live in a romance novel? Nothing bad ever happens in  _ those _ .”

“Maybe you  _ are _ living in a romance novel,” Emerald said, amused. “Maybe this is just the build up of backstory so your leading lady can come in and save you.”

“All right, well who’s my leading lady? Who’s going to ~save~ me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you haven’t met her yet. Maybe you have and you don’t know it.” A barely suppressed snicker, and, “Maybe it’s ~me~. Maybe we’ve been living in a romance novel all along and just didn’t know it.”

This got an actual laugh out of him, an ugly snorting laugh that, had he only seen it, put a relieved smile on Emerald’s face. “Look, I know I’m a hottie-”

“You’re really not.”

“-but you gotta put a cap on it. I’m just not into you like that. I know it’s going to be hard, but you’ll just have to move on.”

More laughter. “You’re such a dick.”

“Hey, you’re the girl in this romance novel, it’s your job to fix that.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sake of my sanity and my inability to keep track of who _should_ be in a given scene, the kids will not all always be in every ddnmd session. Coordinating a stable session with a bunch of adults is hard enough; coordinating a group consisting of at very least seven kids has got to be a nightmare.
> 
> For the record, the main group in whole consists of Ruby, Nora, Penny, Sun, Jaune, Ren, and Weiss, with others coming and going as they take an interest or lose it. Just because someone is established as playing in one session doesn't automatically mean they'll be in every session.
> 
> (Also, for clarity's sake: Tai and Qrow are not as prone to such close supervision as Yang claims, it just seems like it from where she's standing because they live in a small enough house that there's usually one of the adults at hand _anyway_.)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has a day out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning in this chapter for some use of slurs by people we're generally meant to root for.
> 
> In more favorable news, I am VERY excited about the storyline I'm introducing in this chapter, because it's actually something I've been contemplating for awhile, and I'm glad I was able to find a solution that satisfied me.

-/-

Saturday morning found Qrow pouring himself a bowl of cereal when Tai went to make breakfast for the girls. He was still wearing the same clothes he’d worn when he left the house the morning before, and he looked sleep-deprived and night-worn, half-dozing over his cereal while he ate. Tai watched him in his periphery while he cooked, until finally,

“Late night?”

Qrow groaned. Tai frowned.

“Hey, Qrow? Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Where do you go on Friday nights?”

He was watching for it, which was why he saw the shift in Qrow’s body language: the nervous tightening of his shoulders, the way his spoon froze halfway to his mouth. All this in a split second before he fell into one of his more casual, overly relaxed poses, the kind he used when he was about to start lying through his teeth. And he didn’t turn around while he spoke.

“Where do you think?” he asked, and shrugged. “And why does it matter?”

“Well I thought you were going to Junior’s,” Tai said carefully. “And it doesn’t really matter, but I was wondering.”

“What do you mean you  _ thought _ it was Junior’s?”

“I mean I had just assumed you were going out to Junior’s like  _ always _ but then Roman said he hasn’t seen you in months-“

“Roman? The fuck, Tai? What are you asking him shit about my doings for?”

“I wasn’t, I just ran into him while I was getting groceries. He  _ asked _ about you because he  _ misses _ you because whatever you’re hoping I’ll believe, you haven’t gone to Junior’s in months.” He turned fully to Qrow, who was still hunched over his bowl of Pumpkin Pete's. “Qrow, did you find somewhere new to drink?”

There was a long silence, while Qrow sat very still over the table before he suddenly stood, carried his bowl to the sink, and disappeared into his room without a word. Tai stared after him in shock.

“Qrow, what- ow, f-“ He bit back a swear and turned his full attention to the stove, hastily switching on the fan and switching off the burner while he worked to salvage what he could of breakfast.

Oh well, at least they had cereal.

-/-

Winter arrived to pick up Mercury while they were still eating breakfast. She looked ragged and exhausted, so James invited her to join them, especially when he found out she’d left without eating.

“Do your parents know where you’ll be for the day?” James asked, setting a plate of French toast in front of her.

“I told Kline,” she said. “If Mother and Father stop yelling at each other long enough, he’ll tell them.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I am not sure.” Winter frowned. “...Mother did not come home yesterday. When she finally returned this morning, she informed Father that he would be leaving her.”

James very carefully said nothing, and waited for her to continue. It was Mercury who spoke next, though.

“That’s a godsdamn power move, that is,” he said. “Good for her.”

“Perhaps.” She shrugged. “I am not so sure. I just think it is best not to be home today.”

“Might be a good day to see if Weiss wants to come over for a playdate,” James said. “It’s no better for her to be around than it is for you, if your parents are fighting like you say.”

The look she turned on him was packed with gratitude, but she schooled her face back into order before turning to Mercury instead. “Are you ready to go? We have just enough time to reach the rink to meet my friends if we leave now.”

“Yeah, lemme go put on pants.” 

He stood and hurried upstairs- he was still wearing his pajamas- leaving his plate on the table. James glanced at his plate, and then looked over at Winter.

“How are you doing with this? Parental divorce isn’t an easy thing to go through, I know. Even when your parents are terrible for each other.”

“I think I’ll be okay,” she said. “I’m sixteen, so custodial concerns are minor and largely moot, for how much longer I’ll be required to live at home anyway. My siblings on the other hand…” She looked helpless, and James nodded, but before he could answer Mercury reappeared, now wearing pants.

“Let’s go, Princess, I’m sick of this place already.”

“That is not-“ She rolled her eyes. “Never mind, it’s not like you’ll listen.” She gave James a gracious nod. “Thank you for your concern. I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Sure. You kids have fun, be safe- give me a call if you need anything.”

-/-

It was Kline who answered the phone when James called, and Kline who passed Weiss off to him when he headed over to pick her up. She was looking just as ragged as her sister, though at present the house was quiet.

“You’re a good man, Mr. Ironwood,” Kline said, giving Weiss’s shoulder a squeeze as she went by. James shook his head.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just inviting my daughter’s friend over to play on a Saturday.”

“Hmm. Well. Have a nice day, Miss Weiss. Hopefully things will have calmed down by the time you return.”

“Thank you, Kline.” Weiss threw her arms around him, giving him a big squeeze before following James down the walk, grabbing his hand as she caught up to him.

“And thank you, too,” she said. “I guess my sister told you what happened?”

“She did. Are you okay?”

She shrugged. “I guess. It’s not like I’ll be sorry to see him go, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. And it’s not like Mother is any better.”

“...no comment,” he said, earning a weak laugh. “I was thinking about going over to the Xiao Long-Branwen’s today. Does that sound good to you, or would you like to go somewhere else?”

“It sounds fine. I think Ruby will prove to be an excellent distraction from my own problems, if nothing else.”

-/-

Qrow finally emerged from his room about two hours later, after the rest of the house was well awake. He’d showered and changed and looked a lot more presentable, and the only indication he gave to Tai of their conversation earlier was a warning look before, “Jimmy called, wants to know if we mind having him and Penny and Weiss over for awhile.”

“No objections here,” Tai said. “Must be something up, if he’s inviting himself over on short notice.”

“A couple things,” Qrow said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “One he told me and the other I’m guessing at. You know how he was getting a new foster kid?”

“I am aware, yes.”

“It’s Mercury.”

“Oh  _ no _ ,” Tai said, at the same time Yang snapped her fingers and, “So  _ that’s _ what he was doing in my class!”

They both turned to her. “He’s in your class?” Tai asked. “Shouldn’t he be a year ahead of you?”

“He had to repeat the year,” Yang shrugged. “He was giving me and Blake the stinkeye all day, but he beat it after lunch. No idea how that’ll go. So he’s living with Uncle James now?”

“Yeah. That’s why they’re coming over short notice, kid’s gone out with Winter and since me and Jimmy are playing slowball until things get sorted out, he’s taking advantage of the kid being out for the day to come spend some quality time with yours truly.”

Yang scowled. “Well if you guys are gonna get all gross and smoochy, stay in your room to do it. It’s  _ gross _ .”

“Hey, I’ll get gross and smoochy wherever I want to,” Qrow shot back, punctuating his point by sticking his tongue out at Yang (who replied in kind). “Anyway, that’s what’s up. I’m going back to bed, send Jimmy my way when they all get here.”

“Hey, he’s my friend too,” Tai objected. “Maybe I want to actually spend some time with him myself.”

“Hmph. Well.” He stuck his tongue out again. “I guess I’ll just wait for him to come find me, then.”

-/-

Winter and Mercury were the first to make it to the rink, but they’d only just had time to rent a pair of skates for Mercury (Winter owned her own, of course) before another girl approached. She had hair cut boyishly short and a tattoo circling one bicep- a real tattoo, which Mercury was grudgingly impressed by. She gave him a once-over when she approached.

“So this is the kid you mentioned?”

“Yes. Vernal, this is Mercury, he’s an old… friend. Mercury, this is Vernal. She is a… newer friend.”

Mercury raised an eyebrow and returned Vernal’s once-over. “So when you said your friend was like you in some ways and not like you in others, what you  _ meant _ was, she’s an even bigger lesbian than you are.”

Vernal bristled. “Just what is that supposed to mean?”

“I should have thought that’d be obvious. Do I need to spell it out for you? It’s D, y-“

“You little punk!” Vernal made to swipe at him, but Winter, with surprisingly practiced ease, grabbed her and pulled her back. “Let  _ go _ of me, Winter! I’m not gonna be talked down to by some tranny punk!”

Mercury’s nostrils flared, and he huffed. “Yeah, Princess. Let ‘er go.”

“You are  _ not _ getting us thrown out of yet another establishment,” Winter said, not letting go of Vernal’s arm. “If you two are going to fight, take it outside.”

Vernal looked fully prepared to do so, but Mercury wasn’t paying attention, craning his neck a bit to look somewhere off in the distance, a real, genuine smile hitting him. He slid his gaze back to her.

“As much fun as that sounds, I’m gonna have to raincheck. Later bitch- and thanks for the alibi, Princess.”

He hurried away at that, waving at someone across the rink as he did. Vernal made to follow him, but Winter held her back once more.

“Let him go, Vern.”

“You’re  _ friends _ with that little rat-faced punk?”

“Sort of.” Winter sighed. “I had hoped the years might have mellowed him somewhat. Obviously I was wrong.”

“Yeah well if he talks to me like that again I’m going to scrub that smirk right off his stupid fucking face.”

“Go ahead, just go outside before you do.” She glanced over, and saw Mercury talking to a tall girl with green hair. She pursed her lips, and then slipped an arm through Vernal’s. “Come on, the others will be here soon. Forget Mercury. He doesn’t matter.”

-/-

Mercury was so glad to see Emerald again that for a long moment he just stood there, looking her over and committing her to memory. Who knew how long it’d be before he saw her again? He had to make it  _ last _ .

She looked the same, more or less, but also different. A little happier. His heart made a funny noise, and he forced his face back into his usual cocky smirk.

“Took you long enough to get here.”

“Nice to see you too, you ass,” she said, punching his arm. “Anyway, I’m  _ here _ , aren’t I?”

“You sure are.” He looked her over once more. “You changed your hair.”

“You like it?” She shook the bob around her ears, and grinned. She’d gotten her ears pierced, too. “Hazel asked around until he could find me a good hairdresser. She’s been showing me how to style it myself, but this is my favorite. I wanted to show you.”

“That sounds complicated. I just chop mine off when it gets too long.”

“And then add twenty pounds of goop until you think it’s artfully styled to look like you just rolled out of bed,” she added. “I lived with you for a year, Mercury Black, you can’t hide your grooming habits from  _ me _ .”

“Oh, whatever, at least I never wore stupid pigtails.”

“Don’t lie to me, I’ve seen your Kindergarten pictures.”

“That doesn’t count, that’s not me in those pictures.”

“No, I guess not.” She grabbed his hand, and dragged him toward the rental counter. “Come on, you promised to take me skating. We can argue some more once I’m on wheels.”

-/-

James arrived about the time Tai was giving up on grading papers. The girls hurried off to Ruby and Nora’s room, but Tai caught James before he could head back to Qrow’s.

“Stay out here with me for awhile,” he said. “We never hang out, and also it will annoy Qrow and that’s funny.”

James considered this, and, “All right,” took the offered seat.

“Besides, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Sure.”

Tai hesitated, before, “Does Qrow spend his Fridays with you?”

James raised an eyebrow. “No, he doesn’t. He’s told me he’s got a standing arrangement and is unavailable.” He added, sheepishly, “I assume he’s going out drinking and doesn’t want to tell me. It’s not something he likes talking about.”

“Yeah, it’s a touchy subject,” Tai agreed. “But since he always goes to Junior’s and doesn’t drink around the kids, I try to leave it alone. But I ran into Roman getting groceries yesterday and he says Qrow hasn’t been by in months.”

“Torchwick,” James said, scowling. In the near year since they’d met, he had yet to have a pleasant encounter with Qrow’s so-called friend. “Why are you trusting his word, anyway?”

“Because he’s never given me a reason not to.”

“He hits on you literally every time you two see each other.”

“I didn’t say he’s not an  _ ass _ , I said he’s never given me reason not to trust him. I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s always done right by us. If he says Qrow hasn’t been going to Junior’s, I believe him.”

“So… what? You think he’s found somewhere new to drink?”

“That’s what I’m worried about. Which, I know, he’s a big boy and he can take care of himself- but when I asked this morning, he dodged the question and then stormed out. It’s not just that he may be drinking somewhere besides Junior’s, he’s actively hiding something from me.”

“Ah.” Understanding dawned. “So that’s the issue.”

“Oh, don’t give me that look. I just mean if he thinks it’s something he  _ has _ to hide from me- James, he’s not just my little brother, he’s my best friend  _ and _ my roommate  _ and _ the second parent to my kids. If he thinks he has to  _ hide _ this from me, that says… a lot more than if he’d just tell me.”

James considered this, then folded his arms and frowned. “You know… there’s something you have in common with Glynda. It’s that the only time the words ‘little brother’ ever come out of her mouth, it’s because she thinks I’m doing something stupid and if I’d only listen to her things would be better.”

Tai leveled him with an unimpressed look. “This isn’t about me being condescending,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you haven’t  _ seen _ what Qrow is like when the failsafes he uses aren’t in place. There’s a  _ reason _ he drinks at Junior’s, there’s a  _ reason _ I don’t allow alcohol in the house, there’s a  _ reason _ Summer made him swear to never drink on a school night. And I’m  _ worried _ because  _ I don’t want to see him like that again _ . Ever. I mean, hell, James, why do you think I asked him to move in with me?”

James opened his mouth to reply, to say something in Qrow’s favor, and then closed it again. A thought was occurring to him, something he’d never considered before. He stood.

“I’m… going to go see Qrow,” he said carefully. “I’ll ask him about Junior’s.”

“You don’t have to-” Tai began, but James was already passing through the kitchen, so he sighed and shook his head. “All right, sure.”

-/-

Qrow had dozed off again by the time James tapped on his door, but he was expecting him so he just called a muffled entry without bothering to get up. When James slipped into the room, he raised his arms and gave James a hopeful look.

“There’s the man of the hour,” he said. “Come here, I miss you.”

“You just saw me yesterday,” James chided him, but he wasn’t going to argue with an invitation like that, and stepped out of his shoes before settling down beside Qrow, letting the other tuck the light blanket around them both before plastering himself to James’ front.

“Yesterday was too long ago,” Qrow said, once he’d got comfortable. “I wanted to see you again sooner.”

“As I understand it, you wouldn’t have been able to anyway,” James said. “Tai says you didn’t come home last night.”

James could feel all the comfortable relaxation fall out of Qrow when he stiffened at the words. “Oh. So Tai tattled on me.”

“He didn’t tattle, he just asked me if you came over to my place on Fridays. He’s worried about you.”

“Well he doesn’t have to be.” Qrow rolled over and away, swinging his legs onto the floor and sitting up. There was tension in his shoulders where he hunched over; James regretted the loss of their cosy little nest so quickly, but as long as he’d started-

“Where  _ do _ you go on Friday nights?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Qrow said. “It’s not important.”

“Then why are you being so secretive about it?”

“Because it’s my business and everyone’s in it.” He pushed to his feet and fumed over to the door, making an irritable noise when James followed. He rounded on him as he reached the living room. “Back off, all right?”

“I’m not going to stay in your room without you,” James pointed out. “And I thought we were talking.”

“We were talking. Now I’m walking away. Go gossip with Tai if you wanna talk to someone. I’m going for a drive.”

“Qrow-” But Qrow was already crossing the room to the front door. James sighed and rolled his eyes. “All right, I’ll see you later, I guess.”

Qrow’s only response before slamming the door was a disbelieving ‘tch’, and then he was gone. James looked around the room awkwardly and his gaze landed on Tai, still sitting on the couch where he’d left him, watching him with amusement.

“Get any answers?” he asked, as James dropped irritably into the chair and shot him an annoyed look.

“I’m not saying you’re right,” he said. “But now I’m worried, too.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope none of y'all are expecting an explanation about Qrow any time soon, I'm playing the long game with that reveal.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Qrow has a squabble with Roman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hayley, during the first installment: Write more Torchwick.  
> Me: Well, if you insist.
> 
> (As if I needed the encouragement.)
> 
> This is the end of Act I! Act II will be a bit of a wait; I don't know yet if I mean to write the whole thing before I start posting but I _would_ like to get a few chapters under my belt before I do. If I can keep my current writing pace up it shouldn't be _too_ long a way, though. We'll see what happens.

-/-

Qrow wasn’t really sure where he was heading. The confrontation from first Tai and then James had roused the creature in the back of his mind, and it leered over his shoulder while he drove. He ignored it best he could, but it was ever present and the dark thoughts accompanying did little to help his resolve.

After driving for awhile he eventually ended up near Simple Wok. He pulled his old pickup into the nearest available spot and walked down the street toward the noodle stand, but just as he began to cross the street that creature raised its head, and he spun on his heel and instead turned toward the Crow Bar just behind him. As he reached for the door, it opened, the bell jingling merrily, and a hand pressed into his chest, pushing him back until his knees collided with a car parked in front of it.

“ _ Torchwick _ ?” he said, incredulous. “The hell, man.”

Torchwick it was. He let go of Qrow once they were stopped, and folded his arms over his chest with a frown.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said. “I was just looking for you, in fact. And since I know you wouldn’t want to disappoint your family with your first relapse in, oh, nine months? I thought I’d do what I always do, and intervene.”

“Oh, whatever,” Qrow said. The creature in his mind purred- it loved confrontation. “Spare me your martyr complex- just who asked you to get involved, anyway? It’s none of your business.”

“No? Well, maybe not, but that hasn’t really stopped me  _ before _ , now has it? I’ve always been one to put my nose where it doesn’t belong. Anyway, I know where you’ve been going on Fridays and I wanted to talk to you.”

“And how would you know?”

“Because I lack the scruples necessary to not have someone spy on you when you’re being shady,” he said. “I have to say, I’m rather impressed, but I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t just tell your family about it. They would be pleased, you know, if they knew.”

Qrow scowled. “I really don’t remember asking your advice on this.”

“You really should have.” Torchwick picked idly at a piece of dust on his coat, not looking up at Qrow. “I would have been more than happy to cover for you to anyone who asked, if you’d bothered to let me in. And for that matter, I would have been pleased to know, too.”

Qrow bristled. He was already feeling irritable from his lack of sleep, and his now third confrontation on the matter of his goings on. He jabbed a finger at Roman accusingly. “Why would I tell you? It’s no more your business than theirs. You’re not my friend, you’re just my bartender.”

The hurt that flashed across Torchwick’s face at this had to be imagined, because at the barest hint it had already been replaced by irritation, and then, before Qrow quite knew what was happening, a fist had collided with his jaw and he found himself sprawling on the pavement, Torchwick looming over him.

“I’ve spent eight years taking care of your sorry ass,” he spat. “Eight years! Do you think I do that for every drunk bastard draped across my bar? But if we’re not friends, then fine. Next time I’ll leave you passed out in the gutter. It’d be more than you’ll deserve anyway.”

Qrow sat up, rubbing his jaw in astonishment. “Jesus,” he said. “I’m sorry, Torch.”

“As well you should be,” Torchwick said, folding his arms and watching impassively as Qrow hauled himself to his feet. He rubbed his jaw again.

“Since when can you throw a punch?”

Torchwick snorted. “I’ve been working behind a bar since I was sixteen. Do you think I’d have survived this long if I couldn’t take care of myself?”

“Oh.”

Silence descended. After a few breaths, Torchwick rolled his eyes.

“All right, come on. Let’s get some lunch and you can tell me about it. If nothing else it’ll be a novelty not to wait on you while you fill me in on all the hot gossip.”

“You’re a real piece of work, Torch,” Qrow said, earning himself another derisive snort as the two began to make their way across the street.

“I’d say I’m in good company then.”

-/-

“So what’s going on with Weiss?” Tai asked, after the subject of Qrow’s doings had been quietly agreed to not be talked of. “Something must be up, if you’re grabbing her on short notice.”

“Oh, that.” James pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Her mother is kicking her father out, apparently. Going by what Winter said this morning, I thought it might be a good idea if neither of the girls were around the house today.”

“What about the little one?” Tai asked.

“I don’t know.” James considered. “He’s about Oscar’s age, right?”

“I think so. Think it’s worth giving Oz a call?”

“Honestly I’d be surprised if he didn’t already know.”

Tai laughed. “You’re starting to sound like the kids.”

“Yes, well. He definitely gives off the impression of omniscience. I can see how the kids would draw that conclusion.”

“I’ll give him a call,” Tai said, getting up to seek out his phone. “If only to find out if he already knows.”

-/-

Ozpin was, at the time Tai called, engaged in a high-stakes battle of wills with a lady of his long acquaintance. The two stared each other down across the table, the tension of their choice in move weighing both of them down. A bead of sweat trickled down Ozpin’s brow; it was too much to hope that his companion failed to notice it.

“Any… threes?” Ozpin said finally.

She smirked. “Go fish, dear Ozpin.”

“Damn,” he said, drawing a card from the shrinking pile, and was interrupted from the subsequent contemplation of his draw by the tinny sound of Fully Clothed Gentlemen’s  _ A Full Seven Days _ being played on a cell phone speaker. “A moment, my dear.” He touched the speaker on the phone. “Ozpin.”

“Hey, Oz,” came Tai’s voice.

“Taiyang, what a pleasure,” Ozpin said, giving his lady friend a quieting look when she made to speak. “Is there anything wrong, or is this a pleasure call?”

“The first, I’m afraid. Is Oscar good friends with Whitley Schnee, do you know?”

“Judging by the black eye Oscar gave the boy last week I’d say they’re either bosom buddies or sworn enemies,” Ozpin said. “It’s very hard to tell at that age.”

“Ah. That might make this difficult.” There was a pause, while Tai spoke to someone off to one side, and went on, “Jacques and Whitney are fighting and it seems like the kids should probably be out of the house today. We’ve got Winter and Weiss accounted for but Oscar’s the only kid we know of Whitley’s age.”

“I catch your meaning,” Ozpin assured him. “All right, I’ll see what I can arrange. I’m sure Oscar won’t mind rallying around for a fellow boy in need, even if they are sworn enemies.”

“Thanks, Oz.”

He hung up, and Ozpin turned his attention back to his lady friend, who was watching him carefully. It was she who broke the silence.

“ _ Are _ Oscar and this young man friends?”

“Oh, no, my dear, they loathe each other, but I’ve been working at getting Whitney away from Jacques for some time and I’m not going to let a bit of schoolboy rivalry stand in the way of that. The children will just have to make the best of it for a few hours. Best if you aren’t here, though,” he added. “I don’t care for the rumors that might spring up otherwise.”

“Very well,” she said, though obviously bitter about the dismissal. “We can finish our game at another time, then, since your charges are clearly so much more important to you than I am.”

“Now, Salem,” he said reassuringly. “You already know I like them better than you, there’s no reason to be passive aggressive about it.”

-/-

Qrow and Roman didn’t speak again until Shopkeep had set their food in front of him. Qrow nodded his thanks and grabbed his chopsticks, and, “So what in the world was Junior doing putting a sixteen year old kid behind the bar, anyway?”

“I didn’t leave him much choice,” Roman said. “I owed him a debt of gratitude and at the time I was too proud not to repay it. He decided putting me behind the bar was preferable to my other offer.”

Qrow turned a sharp look on him at that, squinting a little, and then, “Jesus, Torch, what the hell happened to you?”

“That’s none of your business, baby bird. Suffice to say it worked out in the end.”

“So, what, you can keep secrets but I have to spill my business to everyone?”

“I didn’t say you  _ had _ to spill them, I said you were stupid  _ not _ to. There’s a difference there.” He turned to Qrow. “Why  _ are _ you keeping it secret, anyway?”

Qrow shrugged. “Just don’t wanna get their hopes up.”

Roman rolled his eyes at this, and said, around the noodles halfway into his mouth, “You’re even more stupid than I thought, then.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Oh, spare me. Do you really think you could possibly disappoint them like this? Besides,” he added, “You need a support network for something like this. Can’t be done alone, trust me, I know.”

“I guess you would, wouldn’t you?” Qrow shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t tell them.”

“Well, more fool you, then. Still, you’re a big boy, you can make your own mistakes.”

For awhile, there was little more conversation; it was, again, Qrow who broke the silence.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I kind of abandoned you for awhile.”

“I can certainly understand why you haven’t been coming around anymore. And I’m proud of you! This would have been since, what, February?”

“January. I didn’t stop coming to Junior’s straightaway.”

“That means you were keeping this from me for a whole month! How rude!”

“Yeah, well,” Qrow waved his hands around vaguely. “Didn’t wanna disappoint you, either.”

“Oh, it’s no skin off my teeth either way.”

“Tch,  _ spare me _ .” Qrow rolled his eyes. “Ten minutes ago you punched me for saying we weren’t friends, you can’t affect an uncaring air  _ now _ . Besides, you’re right, you’ve spent the past, what, eight years? taking care of me. That’s way above and beyond just being a good bartender.”

“What can I say, I’m a slut for a hopeless cause.”

“You’re a slut for any man with a pretty face.”

“One wonders how I got so attached to  _ you _ then.”

“Hey!” Qrow looked indignant. “I am a TEN. Thank you.”

-/-

Emerald, it turned out, was not a  _ particularly _ good skater; Mercury was somewhat better, but years out of practice. When Emerald struggled to keep her feet under her, he held her hands and pulled her around the rink, laughing every time she let go and wobbled on her own.

“It didn’t look this hard when I was watching everyone else,” she said.

“Eh, you just need practice. Not like we’ve had much opportunity for any of  _ that _ but Uncle Qrow used to take me out to do stuff like this all the time.”

“Well maybe I can start learning now. Hazel said he doesn’t mind me going and doing things, and he has  _ money _ , Mercury- I’m not just some source of income for him, he actually…  _ wants _ to do nice things for me. Or, so he says,” she added, when Mercury’s face got more and more unimpressed with every word.

“You’re too trusting,” he sneered. “When are you gonna learn, nobody gives a shit about kids like us?”

“It sounds like your Uncle Qrow did,” she protested. “Everything you’ve told me about him, it sounds like he really took care of you. Maybe- maybe Hazel can be like that for me.”

“Yeah, your precious Hazel might  _ seem _ great, but the first time taking care of you turns out to be an inconvenience-“ He sighed. “ _ Look _ , it’s not like- I mean, obviously people  _ do _ care. They just don’t care  _ enough _ . We’re not  _ their _ kids, they don’t have any obligation to us, so they do what they have to and when you need more than that it’s too much. We’re better off on our own. At least on our own we don’t have to worry about anyone else.”

“Maybe.” 

She let go of his hands and rolled unsteadily along till she reached the edge of the rink, then used it to guide herself over to one of the entries and sat down. When he followed suit and sat beside her, she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, surprised when he actually allowed this.

“Have you heard from Cinder?” she asked quietly, already knowing the answer and already guessing what his response would be. She was not disappointed; after only a brief pause, he’d shoved her off of him and stood, rolling away a few feet.

“Cinder’s gone,” he said, not turning to look at her. She could just see the edge of his profile, the deep sneer tightening his expression when he added, “And good riddance, too.”

-/-

Qrow got home to find the girls sprawled around the living room watching Cats and Concatenations. He stood for a moment to watch with them, taking the chance to study Weiss minutely in his periphery. She didn’t seem particularly upset; she was sat on the couch braiding Yang’s hair, paying little attention to the social machinations being worked on screen.

“You know, he was my first crush,” Qrow said, as Mr. Parsley appeared.

“Really?” Ruby asked, delighted by the juicy gossip. “But he’s such a grump!”

“I mean, he gets  _ better _ . Besides, I was not much younger than you, I only cared about a pretty face on a well-put-together man. Speaking of which,” he added, when James poked his head into the living room. “You kids enjoy your show. In here, Jimmity-jams.”

He pushed James back into the kitchen, relieved when Tai was in there as well, but James stopped short as soon as they were past the threshold and brought a hand up to touch Qrow’s jaw.

“What happened?”

“Torchwick decked me,” he said, and added, when James looked irritable, “I had it coming, I swear.”

“How could you have  _ possibly _ had this coming?”

“Cause I was being an  _ ass _ and needed some sense knocked into me.” He took James’ hand in his own and brought it around to press a kiss to the knuckles, then turned to encompass Tai in what he had to say. “And, I was being an ass to both of you, too. I’m sorry.”

“Of course, but Qrow, what  _ happened _ ? What’s going on?” Tai looked at a loss, no less so when Qrow gave him a weak smile.

“I can’t tell you yet,” he said. “I’m not- I’m not  _ ready _ yet. You’ll know eventually. Just, right now, I need you to trust me.” He hung his head. “I know I haven’t exactly done anything to deserve it, but believe me, nothing I’m doing is going to put this family in danger.”

“Qrow, you  _ ass _ ,” Tai said, standing and moving over so he could slug Qrow in the shoulder. “We’re not worried about you hurting this family, we’re worried about you hurting  _ yourself _ . But, well.” He glanced uncomfortably at James. “I trust you. Whatever you’ve got going on, if you don’t want me to know about it, it’s your decision. I won’t push you to tell me until you’re ready. I might  _ die of curiosity _ ,” he teased, earning a small smile, “But I won’t push.”

“Heh. Thanks, Tai.” 

The three of them moved over to the table to sit down, and Tai added, “And if James tries to push you let me know and I’ll deck him.”

“I’d hope that wouldn’t be necessary,” James said.

“Hey, let me have this. I need to at least  _ pretend _ I’m doing something to protect his honor.” He winked, and, “He is my  _ little _ brother, after all.”

“I am only ten months younger than you, asshole!” Qrow protested, jabbing his finger accusingly at Tai. “There’s a whole two months out of the year where we’re the same age!”

-/-

By the time Winter and Mercury returned, James had already brought the girls home. Weiss and Penny were sitting in the kitchen doing homework (well, they had their homework out in front of them, anyway) while James made dinner, occasionally joining in their conversation or reminding them that hadn’t they intended to do their homework right now?

Mercury stood in the doorway for a few minutes, watching as Penny launched herself at Winter for a hug before dragging her over to sit with them, then turned and stalked upstairs without a word.

James watched him go thoughtfully, listening to the heavy footsteps and then the slam of his door, the tell-tale thump of him flinging himself onto his bed. He frowned, and then wiped the expression away before turning back to the girls, to Winter.

“So did you kids have fun at the rink today?”

-/-

Mercury didn’t come down to dinner, citing a lack of hunger, so once they’d finished eating, he left the girls to clean up and mixed a glass of Ovaltine, then headed upstairs.

When he knocked on Mercury’s door, he got a muffled entry and pushed the door open to find Mercury sprawled on his bed, covers kicked halfway across the room, lights off and lamp on.

“Hi,” James said. “You seemed upset about something so I brought you some Ovaltine.”

Mercury didn’t sit up when James came in, but at his words he did, giving him a bemused look.

“Why?”

“Because my mother used to bring me Ovaltine when something was bothering me.”

“And I guess that makes everything better, huh?” Mercury took the offered glass, though, staring down at it thoughtfully while James tried to decide whether he should go or not.

“The Ovaltine is just a comfort,” James explained. “And an ice breaker, in case you want to talk but need the excuse.”

“I don’t need to  _ talk _ ,” Mercury spat. James shrugged. 

“All right, as you like. By the way, Winter told me about your friend at the rink-”

Mercury glowered. “Is every goddamn person going to go tattling to you every time I do anything?”

“What?” James frowned. “Tat- Mercury, you’re not in trouble. Why would you be?”

“...what did Winter tell you?”

“She told me that you ran into a friend of yours at the rink. I meant to tell you that if you wanted to invite her over, you would be welcome to. Was there something else?”

Mercury squinted at him a moment, and, “No, I just… assumed you’d be the sort of guy that only wants me hanging out with people you’ve met.”

“Ah.” James smiled. “Not  _ entirely _ the case. I  _ would _ like to meet the people you’re going to be going out with, but I do not require you to introduce me to everyone you know before you hang out with them.”

“Why do you gotta meet ‘em at all?”

“Because I’m trusting these people with you, and I’d like to assure myself that they can be trusted.”

“I can take care of myself, you know.”

“I’m sure you can, but at present moment taking care of you is  _ my _ job, not yours. I would appreciate if you let me do it.”

This garnered more close scrutiny, and then Mercury snorted. He set his half-drunk Ovaltine aside and lay back down, turning so his back was to James in a clear dismissal.

“Night, General.”

James looked as if he wanted to say more, but then shook his head. “Good night, Mercury. Sleep sweet.”

-/-

Mercury didn’t go to sleep immediately. Instead he lay there staring at the wall, and then the ceiling, and then for a change of pace the floor. His legs itched; he considered detaching the prosthetics, and then thought better of it, and didn’t. His arm fell asleep where he lay on it, and he spent several moments shaking it to restore circulation.

He checked his phone. It wasn’t late at all.

He drunk the rest of his Ovaltine. It had gotten warm, and wasn’t as nice.

He listened to the house, to the sounds of Penny chattering loudly to Weiss and Winter down below, to James’ comfortable voice when he occasionally joined the conversation. To Weiss’ laughter, and Winter’s surprised shriek at one point.

Eventually he listened to the front door open and close, and then fifteen minutes later, it opened and closed again, and he listened to the deadbolt click into place, and the sound of footsteps on the stairs as James and Penny ascended to their rooms.

He listened to James telling Penny goodnight, their low voices carrying across the hallway, the words unintelligible but the comfort in them tangible. He rolled over again and curled in on himself, wishing his covers were still on his bed so he could burrow into them.

There was, after several long minutes of quiet, a tapping on the door. Mercury said nothing, closing his eyes and feigning sleep when the door was carefully nudged open.

He waited. Listened. Heard footsteps approaching- waited-

-his blankets were laid gently over him; his lamp clicked off. His phone, on the floor where it had fallen, was picked up and placed carefully on the bedside table with a faint ‘thnk’. The empty glass was retrieved; it scraped slightly on the wood when it was picked up. There was a brief pause, and then the footsteps moved away, the door closed quietly.

Mercury opened his eyes, stared at the blackness that was his wall. Listened to James move down the hallway to his own room, close his own door, and then the house was quiet.

-/-

End Act 1

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing this: Gosh Mercury's hearing sure is good.  
> Me:  
> Me:  
> Me:  
> Me: ...oh.
> 
> (My narration in no way captures how utterly catty the pleasantness between Oz and Salem is here. Have you ever seen a soap opera where two society ladies were constantly sniping at each other but, like, in a civil way? It's like that.)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time skip shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the beginning of Act II!
> 
> As I said on Tumblr, the reason for the wait was so that I could get the whole thing written before posting, in part so that I could put all of the content warnings for Act II in one single author's note, rather than a new one every chapter. So, content warnings for act ii include:
> 
> -References to child abuse and neglect, bullying, ableism, racism, transphobia, alcoholism, and suicidal ideation, as well as multiple panic attacks and one brief nsfw scene late in the arc. These warnings range from single mentions to ongoing discussions, but all of these, apart from the nsfw scene, are references to past occurrences, rather than anything that happens on screen.  
> -If you would like specific warnings before any of these things, feel free to ask me here, on Tumblr @grifalinas, or on Dreamwidth @wyomingsmustache.

-/-

The month that followed passed in much the same way. Mercury skipped school when he felt he could get away with it, but tried not to do it so much that James would be forced to “deal with it” in some way.

(“He’d probably just ground me,” Mercury said, when discussing this with Emerald. “But what good would that do? It’s not like he can enforce it.”

“He might make you do work,” Emerald suggested. “I lived with a family once who used housework as a punishment.”

“He _already_ makes me do housework,” Mercury reminded her. “I’ve washed so many dishes since I got here.”

“Oh you poor thing,” Emerald teased. “Your fingers are going to get all wrinkly and then you’ll have to replace those, too.”

“Ha! I’d be more machine than man, then.”

“I think the fractions would still be in your favor. Legs and fingers? That’s two fifths at best.”)

Not long after he’d arrived, Penny came to him with her newly-purchased Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons handbook and asked if he wanted to come play with her and her friends sometime. He’d refused point-blank, but that didn’t discourage her from telling him all about her own adventures in the world of Remnant, the fantasy world their sessions took place in. They had yet to get a regular table-master, but by the sounds of it they were enjoying the huge variety in story-telling methods that came from changing tms every time they played.

(“You wanna be their tm don’t you?” Emerald asked, knowing smile dripping from her voice when he told her about it.

“Shut up, of course I don’t. They’re a bunch of dumb kids, who cares about their dumb game?”

“You should offer. I bet they’d love you.”

“They’d probably have nightmares if _I_ was their tm.”

“That sounds like motive enough for you, too, for that matter.”)

Mercury went out with Winter twice more, once to see a movie they’d discovered they were both looking forward to, once to Transpired so he could get a new binder, since his old one was wearing out too much. The latter he’d only gotten her involved with because she had a car and he didn’t want to ask James.

Neither of these events her other friends had been invited to join them for, but Mercury didn’t mind. He didn’t exactly like her friends very much, for all that he grudgingly admitted Vernal was pretty cool.

(“How in the world did _you_ make friends with _her_?” he asked. “I mean, she’s a cunt but she’s also cool? And you’re? ...you?”

Winter gave him a stony look, and, “We got into a fight in gym her first day of school last spring. We’ve been friends ever since.”

Mercury considered this, and nodded. “That checks out. Did you win?”

“Of course,” Winter sniffed haughtily. “I do not _lose_ fights.”)

True to his word, James took Mercury to see his own physician, who gave him a full physical along with refitting his legs. Mercury stayed quiet for the whole appointment, only speaking when asked a question and only giving the shortest answers he could when he did. Dr. Thorne was patient with him, but he could tell by the end that she was glad to be done with him.

Just before she told him he could get up, he broke his vow of silence, not quite planning to.

“Are you really Dr. Ironwood’s physician?”

“Hm?” She turned back to him, startled. “Yes, I am. Why?”

“For awhile?”

“Nearly from the beginning.”

“Is that why he picked you for me?”

She smiled at him, a little more knowing now. “Ah. Yes, that’s why. He felt you might trust me with your body more willingly if he knew he trusted me with his.”

“Are you sure? Not just… you know, cause it was convenient?”

She laughed. “Yes, I’m sure. We spoke about the matter when he made the appointment.”

Mercury said nothing more after that, just frowned and glared at the floor while she released him. He said nothing more on the ride home, either, answering James’ questions with monosyllabic responses until he got the hint and said nothing more.

(“Why are you so upset?” Emerald asked him on the phone later. “It sounds like he was really putting in the effort.”

“Yeah, it _does_ ,” he spat. “What’s his game? What’s he playing at?”

“Taking _care_ of you, maybe?”

“You’re not stupid, Emerald, don’t act like it.”

“I think he just wants you to know you can trust him.”

“I know!” He tossed his free hand in the air and huffed. “So _why_?”)

His new legs came less than a week later. He locked himself in his room to change them over, and then had to sit back down immediately when he stood up. Dr. Thorne had _said_ they were going to be longer than the old ones, to account for the growth on the rest of his body, but he wasn’t prepared for how tall he was now.

He set one of the old ones against the new ones, and let out a low whistle. He’d put on a full four inches of height since his last fitting, by Dr. Thorne’s calculations. No _wonder_ James had been so insistent that he needed to be refitted.

...He was probably as tall as Emerald, now. That thought alone had him grinning, and rather than call her, he flung his door open and dashed down the hall to James’ workroom. He burst in without knocking, startling James enough that he nearly put a screwdriver through his hand in surprise. Mercury ignored his stunned look, and hung from the doorjamb when he said, half-breathless,

“Can I invite Emerald over for dinner?”

James’ eyebrows went up, and he studied Mercury over the tops of his glasses for a moment before smiling.

“Of course. Any requests?”

“Burgers are fine!” Mercury called, running back down the hall to retrieve his phone, tripping over his own feet in his excitement.

-/-

Later, while Mercury tried to decide on what to wear to dinner, Penny sat on the end of his bed and swung her feet lightly while she offered her opinions.

“Is Emerald your girlfriend?” she asked. Mercury half-spun from glowering at all of his pants, now too short for him, and glowered at Penny instead.

“Don’t be stupid, of course she’s not.”

“Do you _want_ her to be?” Penny asked, giving him a shrewd, knowing look that he didn’t like one bit.

He huffed. “That kid that was here yesterday- Son Goku, or whatever. Is he _your_ boyfriend?”

“No.” Penny giggled, and added, “But I would not _mind_ if he was."

Mercury wrinkled his nose. “Ugh. You’re _eleven_.”

“So?”

He rolled his eyes, and turned back to his closet. It wasn’t exactly packed as it was, and he was wondering if he’d have to wear shorts to dinner.

“Anyway, Emerald’s just my friend. My _best_ friend. Just cause she’s a girl and I’m a boy doesn’t mean there has to be anything _romantic_ there. Girls and boys can be friends, come on, squirt, we’re living in the twenty-first century. Get with the program.”

“I only asked because you are making a very big effort to look nice for her,” Penny said. “Father does this sometimes before he goes out with Mr. Qrow, but he usually decides on whichever shirt is too small for him.” She giggled again. “He likes that Mr. Qrow stares at his arms when he does that.”

Mercury let out a startled bark of laughter at that. “What do you know about that?”

“It is not a big secret. If it was, they would not say it when I am within earshot.” She added, mischievously, “Though they usually do not realize I am paying attention when they say these things.”

This got her a shrewd look, almost approving, and a smirk. “I may have miscalculated you, squirt.”

“Many people do,” Penny said sagely. “It is because of the way I speak, and how easily I get excited, and because I am young. Many people assume this means that I am simple-minded. But Father says that is more their loss, and they will learn on their own not to underestimate me.”

“You speak fine,” Mercury said, turning back to his clothes, and added, “So, I have a problem.”

“What is wrong?”

“...none of my pants are long enough anymore.”

-/-

When Emerald arrived, escorted by a frankly enormous man he could only assume was Hazel, Mercury threw the door open before she could even knock. She stared at him in surprise, then narrowed her eyes at him.

“All right, since when are we the same height?” she demanded.

“Since I had a growth spurt this morning,” he said, holding one leg up for her inspection and feeling suddenly glad he’d been forced to go with the shorts.

Her expression swapped from suspicious to pleased. “Oh! Your new legs came in!”

“Yep! Turns out I should have been getting a refit every six months to accommodate for my growth, but ha ha, who cared about _that_ , right?”

“It sounds like good old General Hardass did,” she pointed out. “Oh, this is Hazel.” She gestured at the enormous man standing behind her, arms folded, watching them with some small amusement. “He wanted to meet you.”

“Sup.”

This got him a polite nod, and then Hazel turned to Emerald. “I’ll be back to pick you up at eight. If you’d like to leave sooner, just call.”

“Okay! Thanks for the ride.”

She waved while he walked back to his van, and then followed Mercury into the house, looking around with wide eyes.

“Wow,” she said, stopping in the entry. “This place is huge.”

“Tell me about it,” he agreed. “Me and Penny and the General have our own rooms _and_ he has a separate workroom and there’s _still_ a spare bedroom downstairs.”

“Damn. That’s a lot of rooms for just three people. This place is crawling with space.”

“It’s definitely not crowded, that’s for sure.” He led her up the stairs, and down the hall to his own room. “This one’s mine. Penny’s across the hall and the two at the end are the General.”

Inside, she stood in the middle of the room and looked around with wide eyes.

“Wow,” she said finally. “This room is bigger than the one we were sharing between us.”

“Right?” He laughed, a little incredulously, and flopped onto his bed. “I’ve never lived _anywhere_ this big.”

“It seems really nice.” She sat beside him, and drew one knee up to her. “So why are you _always_ complaining about it?”

“Are you kidding?” He laughed again. “Emerald, this place is _fantastic_ ! And every day it seems better and better- how long until the universe comes along to demand the price of all this? And how big is that price tag gonna _be_ ?” He mirrored her motion and drew both legs up to hug them. “I don’t know if I can _afford_ it when it does.”

“Oh, Mercury,” she began, but was interrupted by James appearing at the door. Her mouth fell open, and then snapped hastily closed, accompanied by an eyeroll from Mercury.

“Sorry to interrupt, but were you _planning_ to introduce me to your friend? Or let me know she’d arrived?”

“Oh, yeah, that.” Mercury shrugged. “Emerald, Dr. Ironwood.”

He gestured between them, and seemed to think this was introduction enough. After a moment, James gave him an indulgent smile and shook his head.

“All right, fair enough. It’s nice to meet you, Emerald. I’ll have dinner ready in about fifteen minutes. We’re having hamburgers and crinkle fries, unless you have any other requests?”

“No, that sounds fine, thank you.”

She said nothing more, and both teens sat staring blankly at James until he got the point and walked out, shaking his head again. Emerald turned back to Mercury.

“He seems nice.”

Mercury side-eyed her suspiciously, and, “Your guy is _huge_.”

“Oh my _gods_ , right? My first week I was terrified to piss him off, but he’s pretty chill actually.”

“You sure?”

“As long as I stay out of the shed when he’s working out, he’s fine.” There was more squinting, so she punched his arm. “I did not test this, it’s what I was told.”

-/-

He took her downstairs for dinner not too long after that, and found Penny in the dining room setting the table for them.

“So you’re Penny,” Emerald said, when they’d been introduced. “You are… ridiculously cute.”

Penny beamed. “Thank you!”

“I’m not sure that was a compliment.”

“That is okay. I like being cute, so I will take it as one.”

“All right, more power to you, I guess.”

She exchanged a look with Mercury, while Penny dashed over to play hostess, and pulled a chair out.

“You may sit here. It is right next to Mercury and right across from me, so we may talk to you freely during dinner.”

“Can’t I talk to your dad, too?” Emerald asked, taking the offered seat. “Or is that not good manners or something since he’s not my immediate neighbor?”

“No, you may talk to him as much as you like,” Penny assured her, pulling out Mercury’s chair as well. “If we were a large party it would be rude, but since there are only four of us there is no need for such ceremony.”

“Penny’s been reading Cats and Concatenations,” Mercury said, by way of explanation, when Emerald looked confused. “So she’s got all these ideas about polite society. I find it best to just ignore her and do what I want.”

“Oh, I see.” Emerald gave her an amused look. “Well, I don’t care about polite society. So I’ll talk to who I want to.”

“As you like,” Penny said cheerily, and dashed off to the kitchen to help James bring in the food. “It is just for fun, anyway.”

-/-

Over dinner, Penny dominated the conversation, the two teenagers only wanting to talk to each other but not willing to do so with an audience. She started off talking about Cats and Concatenations- she was reading it alongside her friends, and had gotten so delighted with the current place that she’d read a few pages ahead and was now waiting anxiously for her friends to catch up.

“See, Em?” Mercury said suddenly, when Penny brought up the changes happening in Mr. Parsley. “In a romance novel, it’s the girl’s job to fix the guy. Even the ultimate romance novel agrees with me.”

“Oh, that is not true at all!” Penny objected. “Mr. Parsley changed on his own, because he wanted to be worthy of his love, even if she didn't reciprocate. She barely had anything to do with it at all.”

“Except the part where she ripped him to shreds for being a dick,” Emerald pointed out, giving Mercury her smuggest look. “I would be happy to rip you to shreds for being a dick, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Language, please,” James said. “And Penny is right, even though Mr. Parsley’s changes were prompted by Lisa’s actions, the burden of checking his behavior was never placed on her shoulders.”

“Has _everyone_ read this dumb book?” Mercury asked, looking between them all. “Seriously? Even you, General?”

James laughed. “I haven’t read it since college, but yes, I do know the story quite well. Mr. Parsley in the old miniseries was my first crush.”

“Oh!” Penny laughed. “That is the same thing Mr. Qrow said!”

She found this delightful, but at the mention of Qrow both James and Emerald gave Mercury a careful side-eye. It was too much to hope he wouldn’t miss it; he put his burger down angrily.

“Oh for _fuck’s sake_ ,” he said (“Language, Merc,” Emerald teased), “I’m not gonna fall into lamentations or whatever just because you _mention_ him!” He scrubbed his hands irritably through his hair, and, “ _Look_ , I had a bad experience and I don’t want to _see_ him, but I am perfectly capable of acknowledging his existence!”

“I’m sorry,” James said. “I didn’t mean-”

“I know what you meant! I’m just- Agh!” He pushed his chair back and stood, storming out without a backwards glance. The remaining three occupants of the table looked between each other, all wondering what to do.

After a few seconds, Emerald spoke up. “Um, sir? I know you meant well but…”

She trailed off, but James gestured for her to go on. “Please. I could use anything you’re willing to tell me.”

“He doesn’t like being coddled,” Emerald said. “And he sees _anything_ that involves considering his needs as coddling.”

“That’s silly,” Penny said. “Father is responsible for him. He is _supposed_ to be considering his needs.”

Emerald shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“It’s all right, Penny,” James said. “I think I understand.”

“ _Do_ you?” Emerald asked, disbelief dripping from her tone. “I don’t think you do.”

James snorted. “I can make out enough, at least. Thank you for telling me what you did.”

She huffed, “Whatever,” and pushed her chair back to follow Mercury.

-/-

She found him out on the front steps, knees up and hunched over, glowering out at the street. She sat down next to him.

“So… not to be _that_ guy about this, but…”

“Yeah, yeah, I fucking know, all right?”

Emerald sighed. “I miss the old days.”

“Tell me about it. Tyrian was the worst but at least he didn't-” He gestured vaguely with one hand, not sure how to articulate his thoughts. He let his hand drop back down. "You know?"

“Yeah,” she agreed, and mirrored his pose. “And we had each other. And-”

“Don’t,” he said, cutting her off. “Just don’t, okay?”

“...okay.” She hugged her knees and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder and, this time, not saying something that would drive him away.

-/-

Late that night, after Emerald had gone home and the kitchen had been cleaned up and the kids had gone to bed, James was himself trying to get settled when his phone lit up. It was Qrow, so he left it ringing while he finished tucking himself in, and then grabbed it.

“Ironwood,” he said.

Qrow sucked in a breath. “I swear you do that on purpose,” he said.

“Hi, Qrow.”

“Never mind all that, what are you doing right now?”

James glanced over at the book he’d been reading lately, and, “I was just getting into bed, actually.”

“Ooh, what are you wearing?”

James could hear the eyebrow waggle in his voice, and rolled his eyes. “You know very well I sleep naked.”

“Oh, that’s not just for my sake? Wait, no, stop distracting me. I’m taking Nora out for dinner tomorrow, want to come with us?”

“I can’t, I’m taking my two clothes shopping tomorrow.”

“Yeah?”

“Mercury had a growth spurt and needs new pants.”

“How did he… all right, sure, why not.”

“Rain check?”

“Sure.” Qrow sounded disappointed, and mumbled, “Just thought the four of us could use some us time, is all.”

James was glad Qrow couldn’t see the look of absolute fondness that came over his face, because he’d surely be made fun of for it, and said, “Yeah, we really haven’t had much of that lately, have we?”

“You know what it’s like this time of year,” Qrow said weakly.

“It seems to _always_ be that time of year,” James replied. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another. We’re busy people, Qrow. We knew this going in. But it’s still… hard,” and then, because he _knew_ Qrow, “Don’t say it.”

“I wasn’t!” Qrow protested.

“Uh huh.”

“You were thinking it too.”

“Qrow.”

There was a long silence, and a quiet, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” and after a pause, “I love you.”

“...I know.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It doesn't really happen on screen, but it actually takes a little getting used to for Mercury not to trip over his own feet after his growth spurt.
> 
> Mercury showing off his new prosthetic: -sticks m'leggy out really far-


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury's insides are doing things he doesn't approve of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm intending to keep to my "not updating till I get the next chapter written" rule, but I made y'all wait so long for the fic to start updating again that I can spare one chapter from my buffer. Anyway, enjoy.

-/-

On the playground that Monday, Penny faithfully reported the events of dinner the previous Saturday. Nora listened intently, and when Penny had done, Nora folded her arms and furrowed her brow, deep in thought.

“This isn’t going well,” she said. “How are Uncle Qrow and Mercury supposed to make up and be happy if Mercury won’t even hear Uncle Qrow _mentioned_?”

“Father says we must give them time,” Penny said. “Even if it takes a long time, we must not force him.”

“But it’s so _dumb_!” Nora protested. “Everyone would just be happier if Mercury would just get over himself! Ugh. Why’s he being so horrible?”

“I do not think he is horrible,” Penny said, frowning. “He is very angry, but I do not think he is cruel. And he is not mean to _me_ . He teases me, but only as much as any boy might, if he were my older brother- even if he is only my _pretend_ older brother.”

“Well I think he’s being mean!” Nora stomped her foot to make her point, and hiked her folded arms up farther. “Ozpin went through all that trouble to set this up and he’s ruining everything!” She huffed. “And our dads don’t even get to see each other much since he’s being so rotten.”

“He is _not_ being rotten!” Penny said, stamping her own foot. “Anyway, Mr. Qrow is the one who hurt _him_ . _He_ should be the one making overtures.”

“But how _can_ he, if Mercury won’t even give him the chance?” Nora’s face fell. “Penny, don’t you _miss_ us?”

“Of course I do! Nora, I have barely _seen_ Mr. Qrow since Mercury came to live with us, and I only see you at school and ddnmd nights. I miss our sleepovers, very much! But I want Mercury to be _happy_ , and if seeing Mr. Qrow would make him unhappy, then he should not.”

“But… what about _my_ happiness?”

“But you have so many things to make you happy,” Penny said slowly, trying to sort out her thoughts as she stated them. “I do not think… Mercury is happy with _anything_ . And he is unhappy with so _many_ things.”

This sounded more fair than Nora liked to admit, but she was not one to stay angry long, at least not at someone she loved. She flung her arms around Penny’s neck.

“Oh, Penny,” she sighed. “You’re an angel. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“I am sorry, too.”

“I’d say let’s never fight again, but that would be a really stupid thing to promise.”

Penny laughed. “Yes! Sisters fight often, and we are very nearly _almost_ sisters.”

“Well we won’t even be very nearly almost if we can’t get Mercury and Uncle Qrow to get their,” and whispered, “shit,” out loud, “together.”

“Nora!”

“What?” She laughed, a little flustered. “I’m right.”

“Yes, but still.” Penny giggled nervously. “What if someone heard?”

“They’d remind me to watch my language and that would be it.” She shrugged. “This isn’t _A Story About Christmas_ , it’s not like anyone is going to wash my mouth out with soap. Uncle Qrow isn’t like that.”

Penny found that thought delightful, but eventually the girls’ laughter tapered off, and Nora gave Penny a very sober look.

“Penny. Will you try to convince Mercury to see Uncle Qrow again? Please? For all our sakes? Even his? I think maybe it would be good for him.”

“Maybe,” Penny agreed. “But how could I convince him?”

“I don’t know. We’ll think of something, okay?”

Penny nodded. “Okay. I will do my best! For _all_ our sakes.”

-/-

“I daresay the Halloween program will be more enjoyable for you than the Thanksgiving program was,” Ozpin said.

Qrow snorted, and sprawled back in his chair. “You practically read my mind. Kids in costume? Spooky stories? Candy? Halloween is way better than Thanksgiving.” He frowned in thought and rubbed idly at his jaw, considering his options. “And I know some pretty spooky stories…”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” Ozpin told him. “The school board _has_ given you some restrictions. They seem… reluctant… to let you go into this matter untethered.”

“Spoilsport.” Qrow folded his arms. “Why do we work for those fun police, anyway?”

“Because the education of children is our greatest desire.” He said it with a straight face, but Qrow didn’t miss the twinkle in his eyes. “That said, I have managed to secure you some loopholes that I assure you I will _delight_ in watching you navigate.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot.” Qrow sat up properly. “So I heard you had the youngest Schnee kid this weekend.”

“Oh, yes.” He looked amused. “Ever since their impromptu playdate several weeks ago, Oscar and young Whitley have been the closest of pals. Which of course means I spent the entire weekend separating them..”

“Ha! I’ll just bet you did.” A grin cracked Qrow’s face. “Are you _sure_ they’re friends?”

“No, I’m not. But they enjoy themselves greatly, so who am I to stand in the way? Besides, I think it’s good for them. Oscar is a child entirely too easily pushed around, and Whitley is used to getting his way in everything.”

“Then why are they fighting?”

Ozpin’s eyes twinkled again. “Because Oscar is learning there must be a line drawn between being agreeable and being a doormat, and he is drawing that line by teaching Whitley he is _not_ the center of the universe.”

“Ah.”

“Qrow.” Ozpin steepled his fingers and eyed Qrow over the top of his glasses. Qrow rolled his eyes.

“Here we go. All right, what did I do?”

“You have done nothing, I’m sure.”

“You’re _looking_ at me like I did.”

The look persisted, and Ozpin finally said, “How are the elder Schnee children doing with everything that’s happening?”

Qrow shrugged. “All right, I guess. They’re neither of them really eager to stick with either parent, one way or another. You’d have to ask Jimmy for details about Winter, she sees more of him than me, these days. Well. Everyone sees more of him than I do, these days.”

He wasn’t able to keep the bitter look off of his face, and Ozpin just looked amused.

“Your self-imposed exile getting to you?”

“I am a man of constant sorrow,” he said flatly. “I just wanna be with my man. Of course it’s getting to me.” He folded his arms, pouted. “But what else am I gonna do? The kid doesn’t wanna see me, and he takes priority.”

“What indeed.” Ozpin steepled his fingers again, and gave Qrow a knowing look. “Well, I’m sure you’ll think of something. You’re an intelligent man.”

-/-

Penny wracked her brain all day- more than once Mr. Port had to remind her to pay attention to her lessons- and by the time she boarded the bus for home, an idea was forming in her head. As soon as the bus dropped them off, she hurried to follow Mercury to his room, taking her usual place at the end of his bed to watch him while he dropped his bag and settled at his desk.

After a few minutes of silence, Mercury doodling on his desk with a black marker and Penny tapping her feet softly against the edge of the bed, he pushed his chair back and turned to her knowingly, twirling his marker idly.

“All right, squirt, out with it. What do you want?”

“Why should I want anything at all? Perhaps I only wanted to enjoy your company.”

“Yeah, sure.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m _great_ fun to be around, _everyone_ says so.”

“I have never cared what everyone says. I think you are fun to be around.” She kicked her feet a bit more. “In fact, I think you are so much fun to be around that I would very much like if you took me trick-or-treating for Halloween next month.”

He cracked a grin at that. “I knew you wanted something. Why me, why not your old man?”

“Oh, Father _usually_ would take me,” she said. “But all of my classmates are going with older siblings or neighbors, and I would not want to be the only one of my friends to go with my _parent_.”

Mercury snorted. “Thought you didn’t care what everyone else said?”

“Well… I care a _little_ ,” she said shyly. “ _Will_ you take me trick-or-treating?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Who else are you planning to go with? I’ve never known a kid to like trick-or-treating alone.”

“Oh! Um, last year I went with my friend Nora, and Sun, who you met, and Ren, and Ruby, who you must know.”

“Yeah, I know her.”

“Well.” She considered. “Sun will not be able to join us, because he and Jaune are going with their brothers and one of Jaune’s sisters. But I do not know about Nora, or Ren, or Ruby. And it is possible that Weiss may wish to go with me, if her sister cannot take her.”

“Jesus, you want me to take a whole party of munchkins on, don’t you?”

“We can have a very small party,” Penny assured him. “Perhaps just myself, and Nora, and Ruby?” She sent up a silent apology to Ren for leaving him out, but she was sure that he could find someone else to trick-or-treat with- maybe he could go with Jaune and Sun?

He looked unimpressed at her while he weighed the idea, and then shrugged. “All right, but only if Emerald can come with us. I’m not wrangling a bunch of toddlers on my own.”

Penny brightened at that. She had _liked_ Emerald. “Oh, of course! So you will come with us?”

“Yeah, yeah, all right. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

She bounced excitedly. “Thank you, thank you! I will go call Nora and Ruby right away, and ask if they like the idea!” She hopped up, and without warning flung her arms around Mercury, who froze at the sudden contact. “I do not care what anyone else believes, I think you are the very best boy that there ever was!”

And dashed off, leaving Mercury frozen in place at his desk for several minutes after she had gone.

-/-

It was Tai who answered the phone, but when Penny begged him to get Nora and Ruby he conceded easily enough and took them the phone. They were in their room, and they shooed him away before closing the door and putting on the speaker so they could both hear.

“What’s up, Penny?” Ruby asked. “Dad said you said it was important.”

“It is very important! What are your plans for Halloween?”

“Penny, it’s _September_.”

“Only for another few days! Listen, I have asked if Mercury will take us trick-or-treating, and he has agreed, if he can bring his friend Emerald, who I like very much so I do not mind very much at all.”

Ruby was confused, but Nora lit up immediately. “That’s perfect!”

“But he will only take a small group, so it must be the three of us only.”

Just as quickly as she lit up, Nora faded. “But what about Ren? We always go trick-or-treating together!”

“I know! I am very sorry, Nora, it was all I could think of! Maybe… he will not mind if we ask very, _very_ nicely?”

“Um,” Ruby said, looking away shyly. “If Ren wants to go, he can take my place. Um.”

“What?” Nora looked even _more_ put out. “But why?”

“Well I don’t think Mercury would want to see me very much, but also, um.” She looked ashamed, a little. “Um, Weiss said she would see if her sister would take me with them. And I wasn’t going to say anything but then… I mean, if Mercury will only take three people then… you know… And this way you can go with Ren!”

It was probably not physically possible for Nora to look any more crestfallen than already, but she was making a fair attempt at it. “What? But…” She groaned and flopped back. “Everyone’s splitting up. Oh, that Mercury! He’s ruining _everything_! Again!”

“It is not his fault, Nora,” Penny said. “I do not think it would be fair to ask him to be responsible for so many children at once anyway.”

“But I want to go with _Ruby_ ,” she said. “ _And_ I want to go with Ren!”

“Well,” Penny said slowly, “If you would like to go with them, that is alright. I will ask… someone else…”

“Penny-” Ruby grabbed for the phone, but Penny went on.

“I am sorry to have upset you. I will leave you alone now.”

“Wait, Penny-”

But she’d already hung up. Ruby and Nora exchanged a look. It was Ruby who spoke first.

“What was _that_ all about?”

“Oh, geez.” Nora rolled over so she was sprawled facedown. “I really hecked it up, didn’t I?”

-/-

Mercury called Emerald to tell her Penny’s invitation for Halloween, which she took with all the amusement and mockery he was expecting from her.

After he’d assured her he wasn’t going soft and then let her go, he got up to go to the bathroom and stopped short on his way past Penny’s room when he heard her crying. Her door was ajar; he poked his head into the room to find her lying on her bed, curled around one pillow.

Awkwardness clenched at him. He leaned on the door, more casually than he felt, and, “You know I don’t think I’ve ever seen you unhappy in all the time I’ve known you. What’s with the waterworks, squirt? Your favorite show get canceled or something?”

Penny sat up, and scrubbed her tears away with one corner of her blankets. “My friends are upset,” she said.

“Oh, is that all.” He folded his arms. “What’s it to you?”

“They are my _friends_. And anyway, it is my fault. I should have asked them what they wanted to do for Halloween before I asked you, and I did not.”

“That’s what this is about?”

Penny nodded, sniffling. “Ruby wants to go trick-or-treating with Weiss, and Nora wants to go with both Ruby _and_ Ren, and she cannot go with both of them if they go with me. But if Nora and Ren go with Weiss and Ruby, then there is no one to go with me, because Sun and Jaune are already going with their brothers.”

“I sure wish I had your problems. Imagine having so many people who like you that you’re not sure which ones to hang out with first?”

Penny sniffled again, and curled around her pillow once more, burying her face in it and saying in a small voice, “Okay, Mercury.”

Something unfamiliar and uncomfortable clenched inside of Mercury, something he wasn’t quite sure what to do with.

“Well,” he began, and realized he wasn’t sure where he was going from there. He tried again. “It’s not really any skin off my teeth who goes- I just don’t want a whole gaggle. So just let me know which munchkins I’m escorting.”

This didn’t seem right either. He decided retreat was probably best, and fled.

-/-

Twenty minutes later, Penny was woken from a light doze by the sound of her bedroom door closing. When she looked around in confusion, her room was empty, but there was a glass of Ovaltine on her bedside table.

Taped to the side was a bit of paper with a smiley-face drawn on it with black marker.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what I'm going to do with Qrow's Halloween program and I'm in the arc where I have to figure it out. Hmmm...


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury has a bad day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where those warnings start to come into play.

-/-

On the playground the next morning, Penny explained her plan to her friends a little more.

“-and I thought that if Ruby and Nora went with us, then he might have to see Mr. Qrow, for a minute at least. And even if he did not, perhaps seeing Ruby might be like a baby step toward being willing to see Mr. Qrow again.”

“Why didn’t you  _ say _ so, Penny?” Ruby demanded. “We could have talked about it like that, instead of making plans like normal.”

“Well… I did not know if you would be willing to go into a scheme with me, given how badly our last one failed.”

“I don’t know that it went badly,” Ruby said. “I mean, Nora got adopted and Uncle Qrow is dating Uncle James and they’re gonna get married any day now, so I’d say it was a success.”

“I do not think they are going to get married  _ any day _ now,” Penny said, and got an eyeroll from Ruby.

“Of course they are, they’ve been dating for over a year now.”

“It hasn’t even been a year,” Nora reminded her.

Before they were able to have another discussion about Ruby’s questionable relationship with the passage of time, Sun- hitherto occupied by the swings- launched himself into the air and half-landed, half-rolled over the woodchips toward them.

He straightened up, shaking woodchips from his hair, and beamed at them.

“Okay, I’m bored with swinging. What are we talking about?”

“We’re trying to decide whether our plan from last winter was a bust or not,” explained Ruby, the only one of the three not suddenly very interested in her hands or the ground. Sun folded his arms and considered this, then nodded.

“It might not have gone the way we expected, but we got what we wanted in the end.”

“Yes, but-“ Penny glanced at Nora, “The price was almost too dear to pay for it. If Nora had been hurt because of our plans, I would never have been happy again.”

“Aww, Penny…”

“I wouldn’t either,” Sun agreed, and Nora’s face was scarlet now, “but that was just a miscalculation. I think it would have ended fine either way.”

“But in the end it turned out we should have just talked to Uncle Qrow to begin with,” Ruby pointed out. “Maybe we could try just talking to him to begin with  _ now _ ?”

“We already know what he’ll  _ say _ , though,” Nora said. “He’ll say, ‘Sorry kiddo, it just has to be that way.’ You know I’m right.”

“That was a really good Mr. Qrow impression,” Sun said, at the same time that Penny said, “But perhaps… if you really  _ talked _ to him about it? Instead of just asking? Perhaps that would help.”

“I guess we could try,” Ruby relented. “We’ll talk to Uncle Qrow tonight. You talk to Mercury, okay? Maybe it will help?”

“Okay.” She nodded firmly, and took on a determined stance. “We will make it work!”

-/-

There weren’t words in all of Mercury’s vocabulary to describe how much he hated being in school. Everything about sitting in that stupid classroom with the stupid motivational posters on the wall and the stupid chatter of his stupid classmates and the click-click-click of Glynda’s heels on the tile while she paced and lectured- all of it grated against his brain and made his skin itch until he knew he wasn’t going to last the whole day.

Lunchtime was the easiest time to slip away. There were too many kids coming and going from the cafeteria for anyone to notice one loan student strolling through the halls, and by the time he had slipped out the back door no one would have noticed him anyway.

There was a chain-link fence that ran behind the staff parking lot. It was high and not completely sturdy, but he had enough practice climbing it that he could generally get over it pretty quickly, duck into the small copse of woods behind the school, and come out behind the gas station on the other side, and no one would care. Who would notice a stray teenager wandering around town on a school day? No one on that end of town, certainly.

He made his way through the lot at a quick pace, but as he neared the space he usually hopped the fence he spotted a figure leaning against it, arms crossed and a look of pure judgment on her face. He slowed to a halt, and folded his own arms.

“What are you doing here, Blondie?” he demanded. “Not skipping school, are you? A good little girl like you?”

“You’re going to get Uncle James in trouble,” Yang said. “If you keep being truant from school Child Services will look into his case.”

Mercury mouthed ‘ _ Uncle James _ ’ and scoffed, then moved over to the fence.

“That’s it, is it? You come out here to scold me?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you.”

“I’m not stopping you.” He half turned from his hand-holds on the fence to look at her. “Well? Make it quick, Blondie.”

“I think you should stop avoiding Uncle Qrow.”

Mercury gave her an unimpressed look, and then turned back to the fence, hooking one foot into the links and pulling himself up. “Not gonna happen.”

“Are you seriously that selfish?” she demanded. “Can’t you see how badly you’re hurting our family? Do you even  _ care _ ?”

“Not really.” He let go with one hand and twisted around to face her. “Besides, how am I hurting ‘your whole family’?”

Yang rolled her eyes. “Duh. You won’t see Uncle Qrow, which means Uncle James and Penny can’t come over to visit unless you have plans, we can’t go visit  _ them _ unless you’re out of the house, and Uncle Qrow and Uncle James can’t just sneak off to see each other like usual.”

“Oh spare me the sob story, willya?” He went back to climbing. “Like I care about any of your stupid feelings anyway.”

“You used to care about Uncle Qrow’s feelings,” she said, and he froze.

“I did,” he said quietly, and then dropped off of the fence. He approached quickly; he was taller than her now, only by just so much but it was enough to make her take a half-step back, and he used that moment before she’d braced herself to hiss, “And look where that got me, huh.”

Her eyes narrowed; she reclaimed the half-step she’d taken and squared herself up. They were going to fight, he knew it. This was how it had always gone: one of them picking and scraping at the other until one of them swung. He wondered which of them would start it this time.

“It’s your own fault you had to leave,” she spat. “You were told you couldn’t stay if we kept fighting but you just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You brought it on yourself.”

“You started as many of those fights as I did, Blondie.” He sneered. “But you always had the upper hand in the end, didn’t you? Because he didn’t exactly have the  _ option _ of throwing  _ you _ away, did he? You had a  _ father _ and a  _ sister _ and a  _ home _ , you had a  _ family _ who loved you- and what did  _ I _ have? I had a man who  _ swore _ he’d take care of me, and then  _ gave up _ when it got to be too much. I got to go live in a house with twelve other kids and guardians who never bothered to even do a headcount.”

Her mouth was open. She looked like she wanted to say something; he didn’t let her, and kept talking. He hadn’t meant to tell her this, to tell her any of this, to tell anyone this, but as he’d started, he might as well finish. “And  _ then _ , when even  _ that _ was too good for me, I was sent to live with a man who was probably a serial killer and  _ definitely _ a creepy cultist, a man who  _ delighted _ in finding and pushing every single button in my brain, and then knocking me over and  _ laughing _ when I snapped and swung on him.”

His fists were clenched at his side, as much so he’d be ready to swing when she did as to still the quaking. In his mind’s eye he could still see Tyrian crouched over him, giggling that manic giggle of his. As much to shut the phantom up as anything, he went on.

“A man who, when he got arrested,  _ swore _ to us that he’d  _ find _ us once he was out, because  _ we belonged to him and his queen now _ , and couldn’t be allowed to escape. Did I  _ deserve _ that, Blondie? Huh? Did I bring it on myself, do you think? Shoulda been a good little boy, huh? Shoulda just done what I was told so I wouldn’t  _ deserve _ that?”

She wasn’t going to hit him. He could see it in her face, in her eyes, wide and horrified and so like her uncle’s. He sneered, and spun back to the fence.

When he was at the top, he paused and called over his shoulder, “Go back to class, Blondie. Go back to class and be a good little girl so you can deserve all the nice things you have.”

And then dropped down from the fence to land on the other side in a roll, and took off like a spooked rabbit into the trees.

-/-

It didn’t take long to get through the copse, a minute or two at best, but he wasn’t aware of any of it. He reached the gas station on autopilot and ducked unnoticed into the tiny bathroom at the back. It was miniscule, a pedestal sink and a toilet that rose only a foot out of the floor, both under a bare bulb that gave the bathroom a slightly orange tint to it.

He caught sight of himself in the dingy mirror over the sink, a pale, wide-eyed boy breathing heavily and shaking, and sank to the floor rather than face himself, arms curled around himself and knees drawn up to his forehead.

-/-

Yang felt sick.

She walked back to class in a daze, feet carrying her while her mind was a thousand miles away. She was late back from lunch; she mumbled an excuse to Glynda about getting held up in the bathroom and got an understanding nod as she slipped back to her seat. That was one thing to say in Glynda’s favor: she was pretty forgiving about bathroom emergencies. As long as it wasn’t overused, it could be a very useful tool.

Blake watched her back to her seat and, once she’d looked up, mouthed, ‘Are you okay?’

Yang shook her head, but couldn’t bring herself to answer. Her thoughts were miles away, years away.

She’d known it probably wasn’t good, of course. Uncle Qrow had said there couldn’t be many good prospects out there, not in a county that was willing to give a foster license to a known alcoholic. She’d heard enough from Nora, and from his past kids as well, to know that good foster families in their area were slim pickings. It was one of the reasons Uncle James had been so adamant about getting his license, on top of the other reasons.

It had never occurred to her just how  _ bad _ it could get. That so much could slip through the cracks so easily.

Poor Mercury. How in the  _ world _ could such a man have gotten his license in the first place? Even Uncle Qrow had to work to keep his; she’d overheard him explaining it to Uncle James awhile back, that it was only through Dad and Glynda and Ozpin’s testimonies that he had his drinking under control that he was allowed to keep his license, and even  _ then _ , only because Mr. Lionheart, who ran the local dfacs office, was an old friend of his.

So a creepy cultist? A probable serial killer? A cruel man who triggered his ward on purpose, for fun?

_ How _ ?

Yang didn’t take in a word of Glynda’s lesson, and when the rest of the class was dismissed to go to gym, Glynda held her back.

“A word, Yang?”

“Sure.” She made her slow way to Glynda’s desk while the rest of the class filed out, and once they were gone, Glynda closed the door and joined her.

“You don’t seem like you’re feeling well,” she said gently. “You were very pale when you came back from lunch. Are you sick?”

“I feel a little sick,” Yang said quietly, pulling her hair around her shoulder and twisting it anxiously. A thought occurred to her, then, and, “Um, you were Mercury’s teacher last year, weren’t you?”

“I was.” Glynda studied her thoughtfully for a moment, and then gave a knowing smile. “You weren’t held up by a bathroom emergency, were you?”

Yang shook her head, a little ashamed. “No, I- I followed Mercury when he ducked out,” and quieter, added, “We argued,” and then so low even she could barely hear it, “I don’t know what I was expecting, really.”

“Why did you follow him?”

Yang shrugged, still playing nervously with her hair. “I don’t know. I guess I… I told him if he kept skipping school, he could get Uncle James in trouble.”

Glynda gave her another of those smiles. “You let me worry about that, Yang. James has wanted this for too long; I’m not going to be the thing that takes it away from him.”

“I know.” She shrugged again. “I think really I just wanted the chance to convince him to see Uncle Qrow again.”

Yang was staring very firmly at a spot on the blackboard, so she didn’t see the brief softening of Glynda’s expression before she schooled herself and went on, “Don’t worry about that, either,” she said gently. “I know it must be frustrating, but this is much, much bigger than you kids can imagine.”

“I think I can imagine a little better now,” Yang admitted. “Mercury, um. When we were arguing, he said- look, you were his teacher last year. How much do you  _ know _ about his last placement?”

This time she was looking, and saw the change in expression: the worried furrow of her brow, the way her hand came up to cover her mouth briefly. “I… I know a lot more than a lot of people,” she said. “I was trying get him removed from his previous guardian’s custody long before the arrest happened.”

“Really? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Should I have? Qrow relinquished his concern for Mercury when he gave him up- not to mention at the time he had his own worries to deal with. Nora, you recall? She doesn’t exactly have a good history, either, and she needed his undivided attention.”

“I know, but-” Yang sighed. She didn’t really have an argument, it was just  _ frustrating _ . Mercury had been hurting, bad, and her uncle- and  _ she _ \- had been indirectly a cause of that.

( _ Why _ had she needed to fight him so constantly?  _ Why _ couldn’t they have just silently tolerated each other?)

“Yang.” Glynda drew her out of her guilt spiral with a gentle call. “Don’t stress about this. I know it’s upsetting, but Mercury’s burden is not yours to carry. There are enough adults in his life willing to help him bear the weight. Worry about your own burdens.”

“Isn’t there anything I can do?  _ Anything _ ?”

A softly indulgent smile touched Glynda’s lips, and, “You can start by not scolding him about skipping school. That’s  _ my _ job.”

-/-

Mercury wasn’t aware of how long he sat curled up on that grimy bathroom floor, but he eventually climbed shakily to his feet and slipped out of the station, heading down the street on autopilot. He didn’t know where he was going; he was vaguely aware that he was walking in the direction of home, maybe. Vaguely.

He’d made it about two blocks when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He blinked at it. It was Winter.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“Uh…” He looked around. “I’m like two blocks from the school, why?”

“Because I’m coming to pick you up. Wait there.”

“Why are you-”

But she’d already hung up ( _ rude _ ). He gave his phone a baffled look, then stuck it under the strap on his binder and got back to walking. Winter would find him, or not. It didn’t matter to him either way.

He made it another block, and pushed the button for the crosswalk. There was another person standing at said crosswalk; he ignored them until the person turned to give him a once-over and a familiar voice said, “Well, well, well! If it isn’t little old scooty booties!”

Mercury’s eyes widened. Well,  _ that _ had woken him up, at least. He gave the man an incredulous look.

“ _ Roman Torchwick _ ?”

“One and the same~” He twirled his cane up and gave an elaborate bow before leaning on it and looking Mercury over thoughtfully.

“Well now, this is interesting,” he finally said. Above them, the light flicked green; Mercury hurried to cross, and Roman swept up his cane and hurried after him. On the other side, Mercury turned a glare on the man.

“ _ What’s _ interesting?”

“This. You.” He waved a hand in a motion encompassing all of Mercury. “What are we calling you now, scooty booties?”

Mercury gave him a mistrustful look, and answered a sullen, “Mercury.”

“Mercury, huh? Not bad, not bad.” He draped what probably was, to him, a companionly arm over Mercury’s shoulder. “A little obvious, but not bad.”

Mercury shrugged his arm off and moved away, putting space between them. “I don’t remember asking for  _ your _ approval.”

“Then my apologies.” He bowed again. “I shall rescind them, if you would prefer thus.”

“Oh  _ gods _ you’re such a fucking  _ tool _ .”

He was, fortunately, spared from further conversation by Winter’s familiar car pulling up alongside them. She let the window down to address him.

“You were supposed to stay put.”

“I didn’t make it far. Later, Torchwick. I will hopefully  _ not _ be seeing you around.”

“Bye, scooty booties,” Torchwick said cheerily, while Mercury slid into the passenger seat. “Nice to see you, princess.”

Winter pulled away without a word to him, but once she was away, said, “Why is Princess  _ everyone’s _ go to with me?”

Mercury snorted. “Hey, if the tiara fits…”

-/-

They were just approaching the walls that surrounded their community when Mercury finally broke the silence.

“So what’s this all about?”

“Yang came and found me after school,” Winter said. “She told me that the two of you had argued and she may have crossed a line before you parted ways. She asked me to check on you.”

“Oh.” Great, and now he’d have to deal with Yang’s guilty conscious on top of everything. Fucking great. He sank down into his seat. “So you decided to just come rescue me cause of Yang’s bleating?”

Winter shrugged minutely. “Yang is my friend.  _ You _ are my friend. She was worried, and seemed to have good reason.” She spared him a glance. “Are you okay?”

Mercury had, up until that point, been slowly working his way back to his usual mood, but at her words everything inside him froze. He realized he was fisting his jeans and tried to force his hands to relax.

“Let me out,” he said quietly, calmer than the boiling anger in his blood would have expected. “I’m walking home from here.”

“We are not far from-”

“ _ Godsdammit Winter if you don’t let me out of this car right fucking now- _ !”

Her eyes widened, and her expression hardened, but she nonetheless pulled over. He threw the door open and then kicked it closed when he was free, ignoring her shouted admonishments as he stormed down the sidewalk, opposite the direction she’d been going. He wasn’t far from the bit of wall that ran behind the Ironwood house, he thought, and he wasn’t exactly in a hurry to get home, so it didn’t matter either way.

-/-

He did, eventually, make it home, after hopping the wall twice, several fences, and a row of hedges. James’ car was in the garage, which meant it wouldn’t be long before it was time for another lecture on how important his education was, and his bag was sitting just inside the door, which meant that Winter had dropped it off and most certainly tattled on him, which meant more lectures.

Great.  _ Just fucking great _ .

He shouldered his bag and wondered if he could sneak up to his room unnoticed, but no such luck: Penny was at the kitchen table reading, and when she saw him, she lit up.

Something inside him fractured. No one had ever  _ lit up _ to see him before.

He forced a smile he didn’t feel. “Hey, squirt. What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” she said. “Will you let me?”

“Uh, I mean…”  _ Just walk away, just walk away _ . “I’ve probably got an incoming lecture from your old man, I don’t know if I can handle two serious conversations. What do you want to talk to me about?”

“Well, if you do not want to talk about it right now, that is fine. I want to ask  _ why _ you will not see Mr. Qrow, is all. But we can talk when you are feeling better.”

Mercury’s vision went white, just for a breath, and when it cleared he had apparently punched the wall. His fist had gone through the plaster, and was throbbing from the impact; across the kitchen, Penny was staring at him in wide-eyed fright. He retracted his fist slowly, clutching it with the other, and sagged a little.

“I’m- I’m- I’ll- be in my room.”

And hurried upstairs before anything else could stop him.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I need a reason why Mercury will just accept a ride from Winter when he's in this mood.  
> Torchwick: No worries, I've got this.
> 
> When I was telling Hayley about some of this, she asked how Tyrian ever got his foster license, and instead of handwaving it as I originally did, I decided to just go ahead and make it a plot point. Turns out the entire system is in shambles in Vale! Isn't that fun? :D


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Actions have consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking at my lore, as of this chapter we now know the identity of all but two of Qrow's past kids. This is largely irrelevant, but I do need to keep track just to make sure I don't accidentally establish more names than the number.

-/-

After dinner, Nora and Ruby cornered Qrow when he was watching tv, settling in on either side of him and making it clear they wanted to talk. He looked amused from one to the other, then reached for the remote and turned the tv off.

“All right,” he said. “What’s up?”

“We wanted to talk to you about Mercury,” Nora said. “We want to know why he has to keep our family apart.”

“Kids, we’ve been over this,” he began, but Ruby interrupted.

“No we haven’t,” she said. “We’ve been over the fact that it’s a thing, but you’ve never explained  _ why _ .”

Qrow looked between them, and then glanced up at Yang as she came into the living room to join them.

“All right,” he said. “All right. You all know what happened- I’ve told you that much, right?” he added, glancing at Nora, who nodded. “Yeah. That alone is plenty to justify the kid not wanting to see me, but it goes beyond that.”

“Are you guys talking about Mercury?” Yang asked, settling down on the other side of Nora.

Ruby nodded. “We’re trying to understand why we can’t see Uncle James because of him.”

Yang looked uncomfortable. Qrow considered her expression for a long moment, then went on. “Anyway, Mercury has been shuffled around a lot in his life. He’s a difficult kid- deliberately difficult, for his own reasons. A lot of people have given up on him when he proved to be too much trouble.”

“But you said not every kid is a fit for every home,” Ruby reminded him. “When Neon left- I mean-“

But Qrow shook his head. “Not the same thing,” he said. “Neon left because she had religious needs that we couldn’t meet, and a different family was found who could meet those needs and wanted her. Mercury had just been passed around from home to home because no one was willing to put in the time to help him with his issues. And anyone who ain’t willing to do  _ that _ doesn’t need to be a foster parent. It’s like seventy-five percent of the job description.”

“But you  _ were _ putting in the work,” Ruby protested. “You were working really hard!”

“Sure, but in the end…” he trailed off, and looked at Yang. She was staring at her lap; she looked like she was going to be sick.

“It’s not fair,” she said, clenching her fists into her shorts. “It’s not  _ fair _ . I started as many of those fights as he did, so why is he the one who had to leave for it?”

“And there we reach the crux of the matter,” Qrow said, and nodded. “Because it  _ wasn’t _ fair. Because I made a promise and had to break it. Because I couldn’t think of a better solution, because I gave up. Any progress I’d made was undone and I probably did a lot more damage than I’d repaired. Because I betrayed the kid’s trust. Anything that happened to him after he left here is in part my blame- and reading between the lines of what Glynda has very carefully  _ not _ told me, I’d say it’s a hefty blame.” He looked between them, gave them a weakly reassuring smile. “Look, Mercury has every right to not want anything to do with me. I failed him, and if he wants to keep away- that’s his choice. And Jim-“ His shoulders slumped. “Gods, I miss him  _ so much _ but he’s making the right call. And I support that, so until that kid lifts the ban we just have to work with what we’ve got.”

“But what if he never does?” Nora asked, hugging her knees to her chest. “What if he just goes on living with Mr. Ironwood forever and ever and never asks to see you again?”

“Then I guess I’ll figure out how to live with a long-distance relationship,” Qrow said, and shrugged. He ruffled her hair and gave her a smile he didn’t feel. “But I wouldn’t worry about that. Let the adults take care of it, okay?”

“That’s what Glynda told me,” Yang said, pulling one of her own knees up and resting her chin on it. “She said it wasn’t up to us to shoulder Mercury’s burdens for him.”

“You should listen to her, then. She’s a smart woman, our Glynda.” When they still looked upset, he gave them a weak smile. “Hey, come on. Listen, I can’t do much about Jimmy, but how about we invite Penny to spend the weekend here with us? Won’t that be fun?”

“I guess,” they agreed, Ruby finally joining the knees-up club and tilting over into Qrow’s side. “But I still miss having the whole family together.”

“Yeah?” Qrow looped an arm around her, raised his other so Nora could scoot in as well. “I know I’ve said this before, but I’m really glad you guys like James so much.”

“Of course we like him!” Nora said, and Ruby nodded and added, “Yeah! He’s great! Real uncle material.”

Qrow let out a startled bark of laughter. “All right, all right! Don’t get ahead of yourselves and go marrying us off already."*

-/-

Mercury locked and bolted his door as soon as he was in his room, and sank down to curl against it. He heard footsteps after awhile, and there was a knock on the door, but he ignored it, and after a few minutes the footsteps went away.

There was another knock, much later, when the sun had sunk down and darkness crept into his window, but he ignored it until it, too, went away. He let out a long, slow sigh of relief. All right.

All right.

-/-

Mercury fell asleep curled against his door, and when he woke it was late morning; the high sun lit his room up brilliantly, and his room was a bit warmer than he liked now. He frowned, and got up to go out and see what was going on.

The house was still while he made his way downstairs, but when he reached the kitchen he found James there reading something on a tablet. When Mercury appeared he looked up.

“I was wondering if you were going to stay in your room all day,” he said, and stood. “All right, come on.”

Mercury stood frozen on the bottom stair at his words, balking visibly. “Where are we going?”

“First,” he said, “I’m going to show you how to replaster a wall.” He nodded at the hole in the wall. Mercury cringed. “And then we’re going to talk.” He moved toward the garage door. “Come on. I keep the plaster out here.”

Mercury was still hesitant, but he followed this time, watching James curiously as he did. “So, um. I am in trouble, right?”

“Oh, absolutely.” They’d reached the closet at the back of the garage; James showed him which things he’d need, and led him over to the sink in the corner. “What for or how much I won’t know until we’ve talked. But you’re definitely in trouble for punching the wall, which is why you’re taking responsibility and repairing it.”

This felt a bit more right, so Mercury let James talk him through how to prepare the plaster, one ear focused on his words and his thoughts buzzing at the fact that James, for all his sternness, was still being gentle with him. When Mercury fumbled the instructions, he didn’t yell, or scold, he just corrected, and talked him through the steps again. It was… unsettling. He felt like his world had tilted on its axis.

He didn’t know how to deal with it, so he said nothing more while James led him back inside and talked him through repairing the hole he’d put in the wall. Only when the plaster was drying and they were putting away the tools did he speak again.

“Why are we doing this?” he asked.

“Because I’m not having a house with holes in the wall and it’s too much trouble to get a professional to do it when it’s easy enough to do on your own.”

“No, I mean…” He gestured vaguely, not sure what he was trying to convey. “Why aren’t you…”

James smiled knowingly. “What you want to know is, why am I doing this instead of yelling at you or punishing you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, for a starter, you  _ are _ being punished. Or did you think that I made you fix the wall for fun?”

“That’s not a punishment.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

Mercury scoffed. “No. Of course not.”

James nodded, and gestured as if to say,  _ there, you see _ ? “I believe that punishments should reflect what you did. That’s how consequences  _ work _ . I could ground you, but that doesn’t teach you anything except that I have authority over you. Authority is important, but this way you realize that punching the wall has  _ consequences _ , and maybe next time you think before doing it.”

“I don’t usually think at all,” Mercury muttered, and when James beckoned for him to follow, did after only a brief hesitation. He didn’t know what was going on- nothing about this situation was familiar for him at all- but he wasn’t getting yelled at (or worse) and he wanted to know what would happen next.

“As for yelling at you,” James said, leading Mercury to his workroom. “I don’t believe in yelling at children. If you want to instill obedience, it’s very useful, but I find it far more valuable to instill good behavior. Besides,” he added, and stood aside so Mercury could enter the room first. “When you start yelling, you lose yourself in the release. There’s better ways to release my temper than yelling at people I’m meant to be responsible for.”

Mercury frowned, and turned to give James a baffled look. James, for his part, looked amused, and reached over to take one of the framed blueprints off of the wall. Mercury had been in the workroom several times since coming here, and he’d always thought that particular blueprint had seemed oddly placed; now he saw that behind it was the tell-tale scar of a wall that had been replastered. Mercury’s eyebrows shot up, and James returned the blueprint before gesturing for Mercury to have a seat. He did, if only because standing was requiring more of his attention than he could spare right this second.

“You’re not the only one in this house with a temper,” James said, and pulled his desk chair over so he could sit near Mercury, leaving plenty of space between them. Mercury glanced instinctively at the door, but it was open, and James had pulled his chair over so that Mercury was closer to the door.

Mercury blinked, and stared at the door. Now that he thought about it- James always did that. And with that thought came others: the shiny new bolt on his bedroom door, the one he’d spared a moment’s confusion for and then ignored when he first moved in, the way he never entered Mercury’s room without invitation (barring that one night all those weeks ago), the space he put between them if Mercury was feeling even a little tense-

-Winter’s trust in him, when his sternness should have put her against him-

-waiting until he’d calmed down to reprimand him, always letting him walk away without protest-

-and it hit him, something he probably should have realized ages ago, if he’d bothered to pay attention. He turned an incredulous look on James.

“...you get it, don’t you?” He gestured vaguely around at the open door, at the space between them, and repeated, “I mean, you  _ really _ get it.”

James gave him a weak smile. “My parents split up when I was a small boy, but it wasn’t for another decade before Mother managed to win full custody of me.” He looked away, and then back. “My father gave me very little in the time I spent with him, beyond a temper I’ve worked hard to control, and an ability to recognize an abused kid when I see one. I don’t thank him for it, but at least it’s something I’ve been able to put to use.”

“...oh.”

-/-

Yang had hoped to talk to Mercury at school that morning, to- to what? Apologize? She suspected (rightly so, if she’d only known) that her apologies would be unwelcome. But she wasn’t satisfied with Qrow and Glynda’s assurance that the problem was theirs, not hers, and that she shouldn’t worry about it. There must be  _ something _ she could do- surely there was  _ something _ ? If she’d controlled her temper just a little better at the time, Mercury wouldn’t have gone through any of what he had. Uncle Qrow could have carried on working with him and maybe by  _ now _ , he’d be okay.

_ But we wouldn’t have Nora then _ , a treacherous part of her brain pointed out.  _ And you like Nora so much more _ .

Which was true. Yang loved Nora in a way she would have never been able to love Mercury, even if he had stayed. Was that wrong? Uncle Qrow had always taught her that kids like Mercury deserved to be loved too. But it was hard to like Mercury, and as much as she wanted good things for him, she knew she would never be able to love him.

Which, she suspected, was something she’d need to learn at some point. She’d sat in on some of her parents’ and Uncle James’ conversations while James was preparing for his first foster parent, and she had heard enough to know that adoption was a very strong possibility- even moreso now that he was determined to give Mercury a say in his future, and she doubted he would decide to leave any time soon.

No, Yang was sure that Mercury would be a part of James’ family permanently within the year- which meant that he would be a part of  _ her _ family within the year, too. (There was no doubt in her mind whatsoever that Uncle James  _ wasn’t _ planning to propose soon. He was too much of a romantic, too deeply in love with her uncle, to just go on dating forever.)

So, what it boiled down to, was Yang wanted to talk to Mercury and find some kind of even footing for them (perhaps not using those words, maybe) because from what she could see of the future, they were going to be family whether they liked it or not.

Except Mercury wasn’t in school, and when she asked Glynda if everything was okay, Glynda had assured her he was and then reminded her that it was Uncle James, not she, who needed to worry about that.

“Right, mind my own business,” Yang muttered to herself as she left the room, hurrying to catch up with the rest of her class on the way to the library.

-/-

“I have to commend you,” James said, a little while later. “You’ve managed to gain the loyalty of not one, but  _ two _ of the most no-nonsense people I know. Both are determined to let me know if something is going wrong but equally determined not to tell me any more than the absolute bare minimum they need to.”

“What?”

“I got a call from Glynda yesterday,” he elaborated. “All she told me was that you’d argued with Yang, who may have crossed a line. Then Winter turned up later and told me the same thing, and added that she might have made it worse. Neither of them told me more than that.”

Mercury shrugged. He was exhausted, mentally anyway, and he’d fallen silent after their discussion earlier. James hadn’t pressed for further details about yesterday, and Mercury had stayed where he was while James worked, for once more interested than worried about what might come from being in James’ company. This was the first James had spoken in awhile, apart from the odd phone call to someone with a name straight out of a porno, presumably a colleague, although at this point Mercury wasn’t ruling out the possibility of James being friends with a porn star.

“I got another call concerning you, actually,” James went on. “Your friend Emerald. She wants you to come spend the weekend with her.”

Mercury looked up, startled. Emerald had said she was going to work it out, of course, but he had honestly expected it to come of nothing. He tried not to look too hopeful- James hadn’t said he could go, and he may well decide it wasn’t a good idea. Emerald lived in the next county, after all, and he might not want to hand Mercury over to someone else for an entire weekend.

“I told her I’d talk to you about it. Would you like to go? You can if you want to, but you don’t have to. It’s up to you.”

“I—- the whole weekend?”

“I was thinking I’d drop you off after school on Friday and then pick you up sometime Sunday. I have some work in Argus, I can easily put it off for Sunday and pick you up on my way home.”

A whole weekend.  _ Really _ a whole weekend. Mercury could hang out with Emerald for ages, no deadline hanging over them- and, too, he really needed to get away from here for awhile.

“I- um- yeah, I wanna go. Yeah.”

“All right. I’ll call up Mr. Rainart later and make the arrangements.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Mercury slouched down lower in his seat. He was  _ really _ tired, he realized. He glanced back up at James, who was watching him thoughtfully, and squirmed uncomfortably. “And. Um. Thanks.”

-/-

It was a while before James was able to call up Hazel and arrange for the weekend plans, as Hazel worked afternoons and didn’t get off till later, but it didn’t take long overall. Once they were all clear, Mercury went back to his room, sprawling on his bed while he talked to Emerald on the phone. She couldn’t wait for this weekend, she said. She couldn’t wait to show him everything.

Once Mercury had left, James called up Qrow.

“Branwen.”

“Since when do you answer the phone professionally?”

“Oh, hi, Jiminy. I thought you were someone else. What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk about your invitation to steal my daughter for the weekend.”

“Yeah?”

“Is there room in that invitation for one more?”

-/-

“Damn,” Mercury said, fruitlessly checking his many pockets once more. He’d left his marker in James’ workroom.

He stood and broadcast his annoyance to the room with a long-suffering sigh, then headed down the hall to retrieve it. Outside the door, he hesitated, trying to decide whether or not to knock, and then stopped when he heard James talking.

Mercury knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, of course, but he also knew that it paid to know what was going on around him when he wasn’t there. So he had no qualms about leaning a little nearer the door and listening to James’ side of the conversation.

“-you behave?” James said, and judging by the pointed sigh, was ignored. “If you keep that up I’m cancelling our weekend.”

There was a long silence, and then James laughed. “All right, you called my bluff, I wouldn’t cancel for the world. I’m looking forward to it as much as you are,” and more silence, and, “yeah, it was a really convenient invitation. The timing couldn’t have been better.”

Mercury nodded, and backed away from the door. He’d had no doubt that James would take advantage of his absence to see Qrow, of course- but to hear it spoken of as a convenience fractured another part of him.

He shouldn’t be  _ surprised _ , he reminded himself. And he wasn’t, not really, and in a way, that hurt a little bit more.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Joke's on you, Qrow, they've been doing that since day one.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tai and James spend some time together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I implied to some of you that chapter 11 was going to be especially painful, but that's because I forgot my sequence of events. Chapter 12 is going to be the painful one; 11 is just fine.

-/-

Over the next three days, Mercury retreated back from the ground James thought he had managed to gain, locking himself in his room as soon as he got home and only coming out long enough to eat dinner and shower and make a pass at doing his chores.

Frustration didn’t even begin to cover the things James was feeling as a result. He’d  _ thought _ he’d managed to make some progress; obviously not, and he might have lost what progress he made.

“Give him time,” Tai said, when James related this to him. “Qrow was the same way when we got him, he probably just got spooked by actually letting you in that much.”

“I’m trying to be patient.” James sighed. “Maybe the weekend away will be good for him. He was different when Emerald was here.”

“There you go, look on the bright side.” There was a creaking sound followed by the rattle of a desk chair moving across the floor, and Tai added, “Speaking of the weekend, the girls have demanded that I ask if you would be willing to tm their dungeons game this time.”

“Oh, I guess it is my turn soon, isn’t it?”

“You’re the only parent that hasn’t done a game yet. Well, you and Qrow, he’s very insistent that he’s not getting sucked into the nerd trap like the rest of us. And Li, but he gets a pass because he’s out of the country again.”

“I think I could manage that,” James said, thoughts drifting back to the hours he and his friends had spent playing as children. “It’s short notice, but I could probably throw something together.”

“Great! I’ll drop the campaign notebook off with you in the morning, so you can go over it.”

-/-

Penny was starting to miss Mercury. She had, in the past few weeks, gotten used to hanging out in Mercury’s room with him while they worked on homework or just talked or even did their own thing. For the past few days, he’d refused to let her in, for all that she knocked every evening just in case.

This time, when he didn’t respond, she sighed and leaned back against the door. A thought came to her, and, jokingly, she half-sang, “Mercury… do you wanna build a snowman?”

There was a long silence, and she was debating whether an, “Okay bye,” would be appropriate, when she heard the sound of the bolt sliding and before she could stand, the door opened and she toppled back into the room. She lay on the floor staring up at Mercury, arms folded while he gave her a deeply unimpressed look.

“Did you seriously just try to use a Disney song to get me to talk to you?”

“Well…” She scrambled to her feet, and beamed. “It worked.”

He continued to glare down at her, drummed his fingers on his arm. Sighed. Scowled. Glowered. Sighed again.

“All right, come on in.”

He moved aside to allow her entry and she beamed; rather than take her now-accustomed seat at the end of his bed, though, she smoothed down her dress shyly and said, “Um, I wanted to apologize.”

“What for?”

“Because I upset you the other day. I did not mean to, but I did, and I would like to ask what it was that I did, so that I may avoid doing it again in the future. If that’s okay.”

He gave her another unimpressed look, then snorted and turned to his desk. “Wasn’t your fault, squirt. I was already in a mood.”

“I know. Winter dropped your bag off and said she had upset you. Looking back, probably I should have known that asking about a touchy subject would be bad right then.”

“It definitely didn’t help things,” he agreed.

“Anyway, I am very sorry. I will try not to do it again.”

Mercury shook his head, annoyed. “Why are you like this, squirt?”

“Like what?”

He rolled his eyes, and gestured at all of her. “You know, being nice to me.”

She looked genuinely baffled. “Because I like you.”

“Nobody likes me.”

“ _ I _ like you,” she repeated, more firmly this time. “Father likes you. Winter likes you. Emerald likes you. Aunt Glynda likes you.”

“Okay,” he held up a hand to stop her, “You, cute little kid who makes friends with everyone? I can buy you liking me. But you can’t seriously sit there and expect me to believe that all these people like  _ me _ . Your old man and Glynda only care about me conceptually. Winter is… complicated. Emerald I’ll grant you, but that’s circumstantial.”

“What does conceptually mean?”

“It means they care about the poor abused cripple kid they have to take care of, not Mercury Black, the asshole who punches walls and skips class whenever he feels like it.”

There was so much bitterness in his tone that Penny tasted it, and she frowned and considered this for a long time before speaking.

“I do not think that is true.”

“It's the truth, whether you believe it or not. I’ve seen it a hundred times over. Everyone always claims to care about me but as soon as I don’t fit into their neat little box and turn out to be not what they were expecting, they get sick of me and give up. It happens with all of them, and mark my words, it’ll happen with your old man, too. You’ll see.”

“I do not think that is true, either.”

“Yeah, well, you’re a dumb little kid,” he scoffed, and spun his chair away. “What do you know about not being wanted?”

Penny frowned, and then grabbed the little footstool from the corner of Mercury’s room, and dragged it over so she was sitting right in front of him.

“Listen,” she said firmly, and only when he looked at her did she go on. “At my old school, my classmates did not like me very much. They never played with me without being told to, and when they did they made it clear that I was not welcome. From Kindergarten all the way to fourth grade, I never had any friends. I was very unhappy. I do not think my classmates even understood why they hated me, they just did. It was… lonely.”

Mercury shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a minute. Cute little girl like you? You’d have had friends out your ears.”

“It is the truth,” she told him. “Whether you believe it or not. Besides,” she added, and hesitated. There was no reason to be nervous about this part; he wasn’t exactly in a position to judge her, but all the same, her hands were trembling a little when she went on, “They did not know I was a girl at the time.”

He stilled. After a long pause, “...ah. Huh.”

“Mercury?”

“You ever feel like your life has too many coincidences to be coincidence?”

She shrugged. “Mr. Ozpin says there is no such thing as a coincidence. Besides, I am certain I am a side character in a romance novel, so any coincidence is merely a plot contrivance.”

He let out one of those startled barking laughs that she sometimes got from him. “Got it all figured out, huh? Why aren’t you the main character in your own romance novel?”

Another shrug. “Being a side character is more fun. Besides, I cannot think of who my leading other would be.”

“Not your little monkey friend?”

“Oh, no, Sun is not interested in me. I do not believe he is interested in  _ anyone _ , and by the time we are old enough to be romantic leads I will probably not be interested in him, either, anymore.”

Mercury gave her a baffled look, and then an amused snort. “You’re a weird little kid, squirt.”

“Yes,” and her smile now was mischievous. “I am a  _ very weird girl _ .”

-/-

Tai stopped by the house early that morning on the way to the college. Mercury was in the kitchen spreading jelly on a slice of toast when James called him entry; he froze when Tai came into the room, following the sound of the voice. James glanced up from preparing his own breakfast, and realized his mistake instantly, but Mercury spoke before either of them could.

“Hey, Uncle Tai,” he said, turning his attention back to his toast. He set the knife back in the jar and grabbed up his backpack from the floor. “I’m gonna go wait for Winter out front. See you, General.”

-and took a larger-than-necessary bite of his toast as he pushed by Tai and headed out the door. Tai watched him, then turned to James.

“General?”

James snorted. “I’m afraid to ask,” he admitted. “It’s better than Torchwick’s names for me.”

“What, ‘stud’ not a good nickname?” Tai teased, coming over to lean on the counter while James finished slicing his oranges.

James rolled his eyes. “It’s better than ‘dad bod’, I guess.”

“I mean, I do have a dad bod,” and when James paused to flicker his gaze over Tai appreciatively, rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. You’re as bad as Qrow.”

“I really hope you realize he only says those things to annoy you,” James said. “Also, I’m  _ not _ as bad as Qrow, because I’m not your  _ brother _ .”

“Might as well be.” Tai swiped an orange slice from James’ bowl, and laughed at James’ sigh. “Oh, don’t give me that, you know what I mean.”

“You? Yes, I know. Everyone else…”

“Ah. The girls still at it?”

“And Dad. And your mother,” James said after a nod.

“Ha! She’s just teasing you, don’t let her get to you. We’re just not used to Qrow being serious about anyone. Besides, she likes you.”

“She told Qrow she likes that he’s dating a ‘nice Chinese boy’.”

“Yeah, we’re, like, eighty percent sure she’s kidding about that. Or, I mean, she never had a problem with Summer or Raven.”

“I know, it’s just… frustrating. It seems sometimes like everyone is trying to rush me back to the altar, barring maybe you and Glynda.”

“Yeah, well.” Tai fidgeted with his wedding band. “I’m not exactly in a position to judge. At least you can handle dating.”

“I just got lucky enough to run into a man I was incredibly attracted to who was willing to be patient with me,” James said. “If you ever do reach the point of wanting to date again, I’m sure you’ll get lucky too.”

“That’s the thing, though. I  _ want _ to date again. I’m  _ lonely _ . I’m tired of  _ being _ alone. I just- can’t seem to cross that last hurdle.” He sighed. “Maybe I’ll get Kali to set me up with one of her friends, that usually goes well.”

“Didn’t the last one turn out to be a lesbian?”

“I mean… yeah… but we had a fun night, at least. She said she liked that I didn’t try to kiss her. Wait…”

James laughed, and grabbed the notebook Tai had brought, flipping through it to the last summary page. The unspoken rule of the table masters was that the session summary couldn’t take up more than one side of a page, and most of the summaries were just a bullet list of events. He skimmed the page.

“It says here that last week they swam through lakes, climbed up trees, and caught fish, bugs, bears, and honeybees.”

“Jaune’s brother was their table master, he likes non-battle based sessions. His other session they went scuba diving and mining.”

James hummed an acknowledgment, and skimmed through past sessions while Tai peeled another orange. A moment later, Penny came downstairs, and chirped a greeting at Tai when she saw him.

“Hi, sweetie,” he said, raising his arm so she could hug his side before going over to the fridge to hunt up her own breakfast.

“Did Mercury leave already?”

“He went to wait for Winter outside.”

“Aw, but I wanted him to ride the bus with me.” She pouted, then grabbed her own bag off of the table and headed outside to wait for her bus with him while she ate her yogurt.

Tai watched her go, then turned to James. “How are those two getting along?”

“Pretty well, actually. She’s doing better than I am, he even lets her hang out in his room with him.”

“Well, that’s not surprising, Penny is a sweet kid.”

“You’re saying your two aren’t?”

Tai snorted. “Yang is abrasive and it’s easy to get on her bad side, and Ruby tends to bowl everyone around her over in her excitement. They’re good kids, but if either of them is being sweet it’s a ploy.”

“True.” He sighed, rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. “I wish I was getting through to him as easily as Penny is.”

“You’re doing fine,” Tai assured him. “And you’ll get there. Just wait.”

-/-

Mercury was leaning back against the mailbox frame as casually as possible, playing on his phone while he waited for Winter, who was generally willing to give him a ride to school in the mornings. Penny came out to join him, sitting on the low stone wall that ran between their home and the neighbor’s. For awhile, things were quiet between them, while Penny ate her yogurt and Mercury pretended to have not noticed her.

“Did you come out here because Mr. Tai is here?” she asked eventually. Mercury shrugged.

“I just didn’t feel like talking to him, is all.”

Penny nodded, accepting this, and added, “I was hoping you would ride the bus with me this morning.”

“I don’t usually ride the bus in the mornings.”

“I know. But I was hoping you would  _ this _ morning.”

He sighed, and put his phone away. “All right, I’ll bite. What’s so special about  _ this _ morning?” he asked, mimicking her tone perfectly.

“You are going away for the whole weekend this evening,” she reminded him. “I will not see you again until Sunday night.”

“Still not following here, squirt.”

Penny frowned, and looked down at her feet, kicking them softly against the wall. “It is unimportant,” she said. “Do not worry about it.” Around the corner, the bus appeared, and she hopped off of the wall, picked up her bag, and dropped her yogurt cup into the trash bin before hurrying across the road to wait at the actual bus stop.

Mercury watched her go, a deep frown on his face that was still there five minutes later when Winter arrived.

-/-

Qrow might have made plans for his weekend, and he might want to spend every moment he could with James, but he still had his standing appointment, so once he’d run a few errands after school that evening, he headed out without bothering to stop at home.

Realistically, he knew that James was probably still making the drive up to Argus to drop Mercury off, but on the off-chance he was there, Qrow wasn’t risking running into him and then not being able to bring himself to go.

Whitney was there when he arrived, which surprised him- he usually got there first, after all.

“Hey, Whit,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets as he approached her. She looked up from her hands in her lap- she’d been picking her nails again; he could see from here what a ragged mess they were- and then back down. Qrow sat down beside her. “Rough week?”

“Rough  _ year _ ,” she replied, and brought her hand up to bite through the nail she’d been pulling at, before, “I had a meeting with my lawyer today.”

“How is all of that going?”

She shook her head, reached up to bite the corner of one nail before picking at that one. “Jacques… has good lawyers.” Fidget, fidget. Bite. “I never should have married him.”

“Hey, no arguments from me, I can’t stand the bastard.” He draped an arm over the back of her chair, not exactly around her but offering nonetheless. “How strong is his custody case?”

“Shaky.” She gnawed on her nail again, and one foot began jiggling. “His case against me is solid, but mine is just as good. We both have allies to speak up on our behalf. I can only hope that my allies being connected to my children ahead of me will at least work in my favor. Jacques’ allies are all  _ his _ friends. They barely know the children at all.”

Qrow nodded, but didn’t speak, and after a moment Whitney stopped jiggling her foot and leaned against him, taking the offering at last. Eventually, her hands stilled in her lap.

“I’m afraid,” she said quietly. “Not for myself- anything that happens after this point is my penance, for what I’ve put my children through. I’m afraid for them. If this all goes south- if Jacques wins and keeps them- what am I going to do then?”

Qrow chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said. “There’s enough people out there waiting for the chance to get those kids away from Jacques. You fail here, that’s when we bring in the cavalry.” He smiled grimly. “You and Jacques have been so embroiled in your own personal war all these years that you’ve missed the part where your kids are gaining allies of their own.”

“I’ve missed a lot,” she agreed. “I don’t know if I can ever make that up to them.”

Qrow was silent again. He couldn’t say that for sure himself, and he’d made it a point to never lie to her. And really, what chances did she have? Winter, for one, was sixteen- in two years she’d be going off to college; assuming Whitney won custody, the next two years would be spent in undoing all of Jacques’ damage so she didn’t have a nervous breakdown the first time she was on her own. Weiss and Whitley were younger, they had a better chance- but she still had ten and seven years of neglect and indifference to make up, and that was not an easy road to walk down.

“Hey, Whit?” he finally said.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s take this one step at a time, okay? We’ll worry about what you can do for the kids once you get them away from Jacques, okay?”

She sighed, and began picking her nails again. “Okay.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad that in the last story, even though James was supposedly making friends with Tai too, he never really spent any time with him. This was due to a variety of reasons, but I decided to fix it in the sequel and leave it at that.
> 
> One day I'm going to explain how their family's running gag ended up being "my brother is super hot", but for the moment rest assured it's just a joke.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emerald and Mercury are best friends, but they have some very key differences in their philosophies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey remember a few weeks ago when I got really mad at RWBY for practically lifting some planned dialogue for the fic for canon? This chapter has the scene I was talking about.

-/-

It was an hour drive to Argus, another half hour to navigate the backstreets to find the little house where Emerald lived with Hazel. James commented with approval about the neighborhood- some of the yards had children playing in them, and none of the houses looked to be in ill-repair; it wasn’t a classy neighborhood, but it was a  _ nice _ one. The sort of place he had no qualms about leaving his charge at over the weekend.

“I’ve lived in some pretty terrible neighborhoods,” Mercury pointed out when he said this. James nodded.

“You’ve also lived with some pretty terrible guardians. The two aren’t mutually inclusive nor exclusive, but a bad neighborhood has more hazards than a good one, and I’d be hesitant to leave you somewhere you might be in real danger.”

“Run-down houses doesn’t mean everyone there is a criminal,” he objected. “It just means they’re poor. And I can take care of myself.”

“And I would prefer you not to have to.” James double checked the gps, and pulled into the drive it was indicating. “Still, as I said, this looks like a nice neighborhood. Is that Hazel?”

This last was because an enormous man had come out onto the front porch when they pulled up. Mercury side-eyed James, grinning mischievously.

“Guy makes you look normal-sized.”

“This’ll be a novelty, at least. I’m not used to looking  _ up _ when I talk to people.”

“You think he’s got some kind of gigantism?”

“I think it would be impolite to ask.”

“I’ll ask Emerald, she’ll tell me.” He got out of the car and grabbed his overnight bag from the back seat, then hurried up the walk without waiting for James. He stopped only a moment to speak to Hazel, who told him Emerald was in her room, and to go on inside, before doing just that.

It was the work of a moment to find Emerald’s room- the house was split level, with two bedrooms upstairs. The one on the left had a sign with “Emerald” written on it in fancy green letters; process of elimination suggested that one was probably hers. He’d barely knocked than she threw it open.

She’d changed her hair again. A wide braid twisted around the crown of her head, a green cloud of hair puffing out behind it. He stared.

“...okay, okay, stop looking at it,” she said, weirdly self-conscious. She pushed her hands back over her hair, then grabbed his hand. “Come on, I want to show you the house.”

“-oh. Right.” He let her pull him along, though she let go of his hand almost immediately. “...it looks good,” he added, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I like it.”

-/-

James was only halfway up the walk later when the door was flung open and a high voice shouted, “Uncle James!”, his only warning before a solid red mass collided with his knees. He looked down at Ruby, amusement tugging at his lips.

“Hello to you too,” he said.

Ruby pulled away, and held up her arms in an ‘up’ motion. “Pick me up, pick me up! I want to be tall again!”

“Ruby, don’t be rude,” came Tai’s admonishment, as he followed his daughter out of the front door. “You can ask without demanding.”

But James had already lifted Ruby onto his shoulders, undermining Tai’s words. Ruby folded her arms on top of James’ head.

“Don’t be the fun police, Dad.”

“Yeah, Tai,” James echoed, trying not to laugh. “Don’t be the fun police.”

Tai looked unimpressed. “I can’t believe I ever wondered how you and Qrow could be compatible.”

“That was hurtful,” James said, still fighting to keep a straight face. Above him, Ruby nodded.

“Yeah, Dad, that was really uncalled for.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“You don’t get to make that call though!” Ruby folded her arms across her front and pouted; James adjusted his grip on her ankles, lest she unbalance and fall. “When you hurt someone’s feelings, you don’t get to decide you didn’t!”

Tai looked from Ruby to James, who hastily schooled his face into the most hurt expression he could muster, and then back to Ruby. “This is my penance for raising good kids, isn’t it?”

“You really did walk right into this,” James agreed.

“All right, all right! I’m very sorry I ever implied you were too sensible or mature for my brother. Happy now?”

James leaned his head back slightly to address Ruby. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know, it felt a little backhanded to me.”

“I think it’s the best I’m going to get.”

“Jesus Christ,” Tai muttered. “I’m going inside. Don’t spoil my daughter too much, I’m the one that actually has to live with her.”

“That’s kind of the point!” James called after him, then tilted his head back again, because Ruby was rummaging into her hoodie for, he guessed, her notepad. “Well?”

“Okay, now that the fun police has gone, I have questions.”

“Ask away,” he told her. “I’ll answer what I can while we look for the others.”

“I think they’re in the back yard,” Ruby said helpfully, so James directed his steps that way. “Okay, first question. We watched a movie a few weeks ago with a half-robot man in it.”

“Cyborg,” James corrected. “A cyborg is someone with a more-or-less even mix of living and artificial parts. A robot would be fully artificial, and an android is mostly artificial, with some elements of organic construction.”

The notebook was set on his head to brace it while she scribbled this, and then she went on. “So, anyway, the cyborg man got hit with an electric shock, and it fried his systems! But I was thinking, if an artificially constructed body part is weak to electric shock, shouldn’t there be some kind of defense in place to prevent it?”

“There usually is,” James told her, pushing open the gate to the backyard. “But it can only withstand so much, so anything beyond what it can withstand would still have an effect.”

Unfortunately, the others weren’t in the back yard as predicted. James set Ruby on the porch and picked up a pecan from the bucket sitting there.

“Here, think of like this. You can’t crack a pecan open with your bare hands, right?”

She took the pecan from him and tried, squishing it between her little hands as hard as she could before finally shaking her head.

“No. My hands are too soft. Dad can, though!”

“I just bet he can,” agreed James, who had on more than one occasion been distracted by Tai’s arms*. “The pecan’s shell is like a failsafe- it’s there to protect the seed inside until it’s ready to grow, just like failsafes are there to protect the body systems from electric shock.”

He took the pecan from her and squeezed it carefully between the finger and thumb on his artificial side, until it cracked down the middle. He handed it back to her, and she eagerly began digging the meat out.

“The shell can only withstand so much, just like a failsafe can only withstand so much. So if I put enough pressure- or if there’s  _ enough _ electricity- then the failsafes… fail. And the pecan cracks and the systems fry.”

She frowned. “You’ve got good failsafes, right?”

His smile grew fond. “Yes. The failsafes we develop at the lab are very good, and mine are the best we can make, since I’m at more of a hazard than the average prosthetics user.”

“Right, cause you need yours to live.” Ruby took his hand and pulled him toward the back door. “If they’re not out here, they must have come inside.”

“How long were you waiting at the door for me?” He pushed the sliding door open, and found Nora, Penny, and Yang in the kitchen, surrounded by a mess and the smell of brownies.

“I don’t know, like two hours?”

“It was ten minutes,” Yang corrected, and added, “She was supposed to keep you busy until we got the brownies out of the oven and hidden. They were going to be a surprise.”

“If you give me one now I’ll pretend I didn’t know about them later.”

“They’re not even ready yet!”

“Just how long were you expecting Ruby to distract me?” he asked, and then turned to Ruby, who was holding up her notepad pointedly. There were questions scrawled down both sides, some even crammed into the margins. “Ah.”

“It’s been ages since I saw you, I had to write all my robot questions down,” Ruby said, climbing up to the table and setting her notepad down. She flipped to a new page and started scribbling down James’s explanation to the first. “You don’t have to answer them all right now, though.”

“We’ll see if we can get through the lot this weekend,” he promised. “Or as many as we can, so you can start writing down some new ones.”

“Hey, don’t neglect the rest of us while you’re here!” Nora protested, folding her arms and mock-glaring. “We’ve all got a lot of time to make up for so you’ll just have to divide up evenly.”

“You said it,” Yang chimed in, though judging by her look of amusement she was just going along with the group. 

James laughed, and took a seat at the table near Ruby. As soon as he sat down, Nora claimed the chair on his other side, kneeling on it so she could be more level with him. From the counter, where Yang and Penny were cleaning, Yang tossed a damp washcloth at her pointedly.

“I wish I’d been this popular when I was in school,” James teased, while a grumbling Nora got up to help clean.

“Weren’t you?” Ruby asked, but Yang grinned.

“I bet you were that smug kid that knew everything and that all the other kids hated,” she predicted, prompting a sheepish smile from James.

“The phrase teacher’s pet was thrown at me more than once in school,” he admitted. “You wouldn’t have liked me very much if we’d been in school together.”

“I would have liked you,” Ruby said loyally, at the same time Yang said, “I probably would have beat you up on principle.”

-/-

Mercury only saw Hazel a little bit on his tour of the little house; he saw him momentarily while James said goodbye and reminded him to call if he needed anything, and then again a little later when Emerald led him down to the garage that made up the lower half of their split level. He was working on a motorcycle on blocks in one corner, and they only stayed long enough to decide what to do for dinner.

(They decided to order pizza, which James had done exactly once since Mercury had moved in, preferring to cook their meals himself. Mercury, who had eaten mostly take-out and instant up to this point in his life, had complained about this to Penny once, and she’d told him that James had dietary needs that meant it was better for him if he or someone who knew about them prepared his food. This, at least, had explained his obsession with asking Mercury what he wanted to eat, and reminding him repeatedly that he had options. But Jesus, he could have just  _ said _ .)

“So has he got some kind of gigantism going on or something?” Mercury asked, ten minutes later when they were walking around the block so Emerald could show him the neighborhood.

“I haven’t asked,” Emerald admitted. “He could just be big.”

“He has a motorcycle,” Mercury observed. “That’s pretty cool. Why did you get the cool guardian? I can’t imagine General Hardass ever riding a motorcycle. Probably too dangerous or irresponsible or something.” He snorted, amusing himself with a mental image of how James would react to a motorcycle.

“He got it not too long before I moved here,” Emerald said. “He said if I’m still with him when he finishes building it he’ll show me how to ride it.”

“Jesus.” Mercury was impressed, grudgingly so. He couldn’t imagine James having a motorcycle, let alone teaching him how to ride it at fourteen. “You think you’ll still be here by then? How long does it take to build a motorcycle?”

“I don’t know, but- um-” She chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Listen, I want to tell you something that happened the other day.”

Mercury got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew that look in Emerald’s eye. “Yeah?”

“Okay, so, we were at Mrs. Coal’s, and she was showing me how to-” She gestured at her hair, “-and she said that this is the sort of thing that my mother should have been teaching me since I was little.”

“You’ve never had one of those,” Mercury pointed out, already souring to this Mrs. Coal. Did she think that it was Emerald’s fault no one had ever taught her how to braid her own hair?

“I told her that! And then she looked at Hazel and said that, well, at least my dad had sense enough to get someone to teach me eventually.”

Mercury’s stomach twisted more. He’d known this conversation was going to happen sooner or later.

“He’s not your dad.”

“I  _ know _ , Mercury,” Emerald scowled. “I started to say that, I was going to correct her- it’s never really come up that I’m a foster kid, you know? But before I could really tell her that Hazel interrupted and asked if there was anything  _ else _ I should have been taught, if she was going to be like that, and…” She shrugged, and chanced a sidelong look at him. “...say something.”

“You’re not stupid,” he spat. “Don’t act like it.” He kicked at a rock in the road, sending it skidding across the asphalt.

“I’m  _ not _ . I’m just…” She rubbed at her temples, and said, “Look, I’m not- I’m just  _ saying _ . That’s what  _ he _ said. He didn’t  _ have _ to say that, he could have corrected her first, he could have let  _ me _ correct her- I’m just saying, what if- what if-” She broke off, and shrugged. “You know.”

“I know,” he muttered. He kicked another rock; it shot across the road and disappeared into a ditch. “Why are you like this, Emerald? You always get your hopes up- you always get disappointed. You were like this with Cinder, too, and look where  _ that _ got you.”

“Cinder loved me!” she protested.

He chanced a glance at her, eyes flickering to her hair, and then scowled. “Cinder was  _ using _ you. When are you going to grow up and realize that? She didn’t care about us! She didn’t care about  _ you _ ! And I don’t know what Hazel is getting at, but he’s not gonna adopt you! They don’t  _ do _ that! Not for problem kids like us! You’re not gonna get some magical happily ever after, and the sooner you realize that-”

“What?!” She rounded on him, fists up instinctively. “ _ What _ ?!” she spat again. “The sooner I realize it, the sooner I’ll be as  _ miserable _ as you? Maybe I don’t want that!” Her hands were shaking, he realized. She lowered them, clenched at her side. “Not everyone is your dad,” she hissed. “Not everyone is Tyrian, and not everyone is Qrow  _ fucking _ Branwen.”

She stopped, and took a long, deep breath, and let it out slowly.

“You’re right, I’m  _ not _ stupid. I  _ know _ that most people aren’t going to give a shit about me. You think I haven’t learned that the hard way?” Another shaky breath. Her ire seemed to be rising again. “I  _ know _ that my odds of a happy ending are slim to none. But I have to- I  _ need _ to believe that there’s  _ someone _ out there who can love me. I won’t  _ survive _ if I can’t believe that.”

She blinked hard, then, and like a punch to the gut Mercury realized she was on the verge of tears.

“So don’t you _dare_ talk to me like a naive goddamn fool, Mercury Black, just because  _ you’re _ too afraid to let someone care about you!”

The fractures inside of Mercury spread. He had never seen Emerald cry before. Never for Tyrian’s carefully constructed taunts, not when Cinder ran away, not even when they were separated.

He wanted to say something reassuring. He wanted to tell her not to cry, or that she was scaring him, or that it wasn’t like he  _ wanted _ her to be rejected. He wanted to tell her that it was going to be okay, that even if no one else in the world ever loved her he still would.

He wanted to tell her how scared he was that she would give up on him too.

He wanted to say a lot of things. What he actually said was: “Well  _ fine _ . If you want to live in your stupid little fantasy world then- then- don’t involve me in it!”

And then, without another word, spun on his heel and stormed off down the road, and when he heard her footsteps moving behind him to catch up, took off at a run.

-/-

Mercury had always been a good runner. Even after losing his legs, it was one of the first things he relearned once he had his prosthetics. He felt safest when he was running.

But even he couldn’t run forever. He slowed to a jog and then to a walk after awhile, looking around uncomfortably when he realized he had  _ no _ idea how to get back to Emerald’s.

He’d ended up at a park, one he vaguely remembered passing on the drive here. He headed over to one of the benches dotting it and sank down into it, shaking slightly from exhaustion and from anger, anger that was slowly fading to be replaced with misery.

This was it, wasn’t it? He’d found the line with Emerald. He’d made her  _ cry _ . Even Tyrian hadn’t managed to do that, and he’d  _ tried _ .

She probably hated him now. Of course she hated him now. She had every right to. Gods, what was  _ wrong _ with him?

His fists clenched in his jeans, and he leaned back and shouted all his rage and frustration and despair at the sky. The sound echoed around him, but no one appeared to ask why he was screaming, and after a second he leaned forward instead, fisting his hands hard into his hair and willing everything to stop  _ hurting _ .

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *What? It's not _his_ brother.
> 
> (James and Ruby's relationship in this world gives me life. CRWBY, please, I know I ask you for _so many things_ , but _please_ just give me some Ruby and James bonding next season.)
> 
> (My d-key chose a very unfortunate place to stick in the above sentence.)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Message erased unsent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is why you don't take advice from random old ladies on park benches.

-/-

Emerald had made to go after Mercury when he stormed off, but then he’d started running, and she’d stopped. There was no way she’d catch him, and even if she did, that was a quick way to get hit. He only had one response to getting caught when he was running; anything that happened to her if she tried it would be her own blame.

Instead she turned around and trudged home, trying and utterly failing not to keep crying. She  _ hated _ feeling like this, that moment when her anger turned to tears, but more than that she hated being  _ witnessed _ . She’d always managed to hide it before; when Cinder left, when Tyrian’s words cut too deep, she’d swallowed the sobs until they’d made a stony weight in her chest and waited until she was alone to let them out, waited until no one would _know_.

The night she and Mercury were separated she’d curled over in the shower at her temporary home and cried herself out until the water was ice on her back, and then gone downstairs to eat dinner with her temporary guardians like nothing at all had happened.

But Mercury was always going to be the  _ exception _ , wasn’t he? He was too close- too deep- he knew all the cracks in her armor, knew how to dig in and put all his weight behind a few choice comments. It was always like that with them: they sniped at each other, barped words, sharp words, all carefully calculated to draw blood. Why should this be any different?

This was it, wasn’t it? The end. Their friendship was never meant to last- she could see that now. When Cinder was around she’d pushed them together, made them a team, kept them focused on her goal of escape-

(Emerald had always assumed that escape was meant for all of them)

-and when she’d  ~~ run away ~~ left, they’d had to work together to survive Tyrian’s wrath. He hadn’t responded well to the loss of his favorite  plaything , and falling apart then would have been fatal.

But now she was with Hazel, and Hazel was good to her (he was  _ so _ good to her, she hadn’t told Mercury even a tenth of it, he wouldn’t understand, he  _ refused _ to understand), and he was with Dr. Ironwood and underneath the heavy layer of sarcasm and mistrust she could see that he was good to Mercury, was good  _ for _ Mercury, and they weren’t together and didn’t need each other anymore and- and-

-and that was where it ended. Their friendship was based on a mutual need to survive and relationships built in duress could never last and he was her  _ best friend _ and she loved him she  _ loved him _ but when it really came down to it-

-she wasn’t sure he felt the same.

-/-

Hazel was just ordering their pizza when she made it home. He took one look at her and the obvious tear-tracks on her face and hung up midorder.

“What happened?” he asked. “Where’s Mercury?”

She shrugged. “We argued. He ran off. I don’t know where he went.”

“Emerald…” He caught her shoulder, oh-so-gentle, and looked her over carefully. She’d been afraid of him, at first, but- he was always so gentle with her. “We should find him. Ironwood won’t trust me with him again if I let him run off the first time I have him.”

“I don’t think he’ll want to come back anyway,” she said, and tried not to start crying again at how much that thought hurt. She forced the feeling down, and rolled her shoulders back, trying to regain some semblance of her usual self. “But, yeah, we should find him. He doesn’t really know the neighborhood so he could be anywhere.”

-/-

Mercury was suddenly aware of a figure passing in front of him, and looked up to see a small elderly woman leaning heavily on a cane.

“Um… hello?”

“Hello!” she chirped, and kept going until she was able to hop up onto the bench. “Sorry to interrupt your brooding, young man, but these old bones aren’t what they were and I need to rest.”

“It’s uh, it’s fine.” He scrubbed his hands through his hair and sat up straight. “And I’m not brooding!”

“Well I don’t know what  _ you _ call it but from where I’m standing, it seems very much like brooding to  _ me _ .”

“Well I don’t remember  _ asking _ you.”

She smiled, and nodded. “Hm, well, there is that. I’m Maria, by the way. In case you’d like to know who you’re sassing.”

“Oh god.” He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, okay. I’m Mercury.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mercury.” She took a brown paper bag out of her shirt and held it out in offering. “Would you like some cashews?”

“Uhhh.” How. Was he supposed to respond to this woman. 

He reached in and took a handful of cashews. “Thanks.”

“No problem, young man. I have plenty where those came from.”

He looked down at the cashews in his hand, and then at the bag she was now rummaging in, and then at the front closure on her shirt, and wondered at that comment. And then decided not to ask questions he didn’t want the answer to. He focused instead on his cashews, and his stomach, at the first sign of food, chose that moment to remind him that it had been quite a while since lunch. He was starving.

Beside him, Maria smiled. “Sounds like those cashews came at the right time, hm?”

“I’m famished,” he said. “We were going to have pizza tonight- um…”

They probably still would, but no doubt Emerald would want him to go home. Instead of sitting around eating pizza and watching terrible tv, he’d likely eat in silence while waiting for Dr. Ironwood to-

( _ cut his weekend with Qrow short so he could drive a second three hour round trip to pick up his inconvenient charge after all the trouble they’d gone through to arrange this visit in the first place _ )

-arrive.

Maria nodded. “Are you not going to have pizza now?”

“I mean, we probably will, just not, like we were.” He groaned and resumed his previous position. “I was really looking forward to this weekend. Now she hates me.”

“Ah.”

He glared. “Ah  _ what _ ?”

“Just Ah. Why do you think she hates you?”

“How is that any of your business?”

“It’s not,” she said. “But you’re the one that brought it up. I’m just being polite. We can sit quietly if you like; it’s all the same to me.”

“Oh. Good.” He clamped his mouth shut pointedly and went back to br- to  _ not _ brooding, while she turned her attention to her cashews and, to all appearances, ignored him entirely.

_ I won’t survive if I can’t believe that _ . Mercury had been turning that comment over and over in his head while he sat there. It had scared him, more than anything else about their fight: he didn’t like the implications.

How long had that been a thing? He knew she’d taken Cinder’s abandonment hard, but he’d assumed it was because she’d left them behind, not because she’d left them at all. Had she really thought Cinder loved her? He’d always assumed she knew they were just tools to their older housemate, a means to an end.

He’d assumed a lot, actually. Everything he knew, or thought he knew about Emerald, he’d just assumed. Had he ever  _ asked _ ? Had he ever bothered to find out?

“Gods,” he said. “I’m an asshole.”

“Are you talking about in general, or just now this moment?”

He startled; he’d forgotten Maria was there. He turned back to her to tell her to leave him alone.

“That’s why she hates me,” he found himself saying instead. “Because I’m an asshole. I’ve been so busy unloading my problems onto her I never bothered to ask how she was doing.” He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes until spots popped in his vision. “I don’t deserve her.”

“Ah,” came the response again, amusement touching it. “Well now. It sounds to me like you’re learning a very important lesson about relationships here. How lucky you are.”

“Lucky?” he snapped. “You call this  _ lucky _ ?

“Yes. Many people make it all the way to adulthood before they realize that relationships are necessarily reciprocal or they won’t work.”

“Your meaning?”

“I  _ mean _ ,” she said, turning to face him, “that no one owes it to you to care about you. That you have to actually put work into relationships instead of expecting everyone to give you what you need and never returning the effort.”

“...oh.”

Well, that was something to think about, at least.

He should probably call Dr. Ironwood to come pick him up. He took his phone from his pocket, but after staring blankly at it for a minute, he pulled up his text-chat with Emerald instead.

~~**I’m so** ~~

**I’m an asshole**

There was a long pause while he waited, and then the reply appeared.

_ You are an asshole _

~~**I’m sorry** ~~

~~**I’m s** ~~

~~**I should have li** ~~

~~**I should have a** ~~

~~**How long have y** ~~

He sighed.

**I’m sorry**

There was another beat, and then the typing dots appeared. They vanished almost as quickly, and were replaced with more, which pulsed for what felt like ages before vanishing again. This time the reply came after less than a second.

_ Where are you, dickhead? _

-/-

Mercury and Emerald didn’t talk much while they ate their pizza, old Pals reruns playing in the background while Hazel asked Mercury questions about himself.

He waved them away after dinner and assured them he’d clean up himself, and they headed up to Emerald’s room in equal silence.

He showered. She showered. They both took a long time to return. Neither of them had much to say.

It was uncomfortable, this awkward, hurt silence that hung over them. It was nothing like the weekend they’d looked forward to, nothing like the weekend he’d been hoping for. He just sat there playing on his phone while she drew in her notebook.

-/-

Back when they were living with Tyrian, they’d gotten into the habit of sleeping in shifts. Though he rarely bothered them at night, preferring the sanctity of his basement, neither of them had felt entirely safe without any warning system to let them know if he was approaching. Separated, there’d been no way or need for this, though Mercury still found himself waking up in cycles and trying desperately to return to sleep once he realized he was safe in his room in James’ house.

Now, after Hazel bid them good night, he slipped off of the air mattress they’d put him on for the weekend and nudged Emerald until she scooted over, raising her covers to let him in.

“Hey,” he murmured, when she rolled onto her side to face him.

“Hey.”

More silence. It was agony, but it looked like she was going to make him be the one to break it. He did, eventually.

“I’m. Um.” A break, he started again. “What I said to you. I shouldn’t have.”

“No, you shouldn’t.”

More silence. She was waiting for something, but he wasn’t sure what. What did she want from him? He’d apologized. He’d acknowledged he was wrong. What else could he say?

“I didn’t, um.” He scrubbed his hands irritably through his hair, and tried again. “I thought you were just being delusional. I thought you were setting yourself up for heartbreak and it didn’t, um. I didn’t realize you were, that you needed to. Um.”

She finally took pity on him, reaching up to cover his mouth with one finger. “Okay, that’s enough. I get it.” She brought her hand away, and spent a long moment watching him thoughtfully. “I’m sorry, too. I never should have… said that.”

“No, you were right. I’m-“ He hesitated, and took a deep breath. He needed to say this, and if he didn’t say it  _ now _ , in the dark, when she was just a shadow in the moonlight that peeked between the slit in her curtains, he wouldn’t be able to say it at all. “You’re my best friend,” he said in a rush. “And I’m really scared that you’re going to- that- that you’ll leave me, too. And I don’t really know how I’d deal with that.”

She was quiet after that; in the moonlight, she had a slightly ethereal quality to her, she almost seemed to glow, or maybe it was just his imagination running away with him. Suddenly she grabbed his hand and scooted closer, close enough they were nearly flush, hands clasped between them. She leaned her head forward and rested her forehead against his.

“I am never,  _ ever _ going to leave you,” she said. “Okay? Whatever happens. We’re not going to lose each other again. We’re a team- we have to be. Maybe it’s not so urgent anymore, but I still need you. I think you need me, too. So we’ll always have each other, whatever it takes. Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.” And then, in the darkness that had always kept their secrets for them, he said, very quietly, “I love you.”

-/-

It was weird sleeping in Qrow’s bed without him, but when James pulled back the covers, there was a note pinned to the pillow in Qrow’s messy hand.

_ See you soon, Tinman. Keep the covers warm for me ;) _

James’ expression softened into fondness and he set the note aside before slipping in between the sheets, settling down and hoping Qrow didn’t stay gone  _ too _ long.

-/-

It was a couple hours later before James woke to the sound of the door opening and then being latched closed. By the faint moonlight seeping in through the blinds he could make out the unmistakable silhouette of Qrow emptying his pockets and moving over toward him. The mattress dipped slightly then, and fluttering kisses were peppered over his face.

He smiled sleepily and reached up to rest his hand against Qrow’s cheek.

“Hey,” he murmured, and got a tired, “Hey yourself,” in response.

“I’m gonna go shower real quick,” Qrow went on. “I won’t be long.”

James hummed a vague acknowledgement and let his eyes drift closed again while he waited.

-/-

Contrary to Qrow’s words, it must have been at least forty-five minutes, if not an hour, before he finally emerged from the bathroom. Once more the mattress dipped and then Qrow was under the covers with him, trying to find a comfortable position without waking James too much.

Not likely. James rolled over and found Qrow’s head with his hands, holding him still long enough to press a few of those fluttering kisses to his cheeks before pulling back to study him closely in the half-light.

Even in shadow he seemed exhausted: ragged and rough around the edges. James shifted his hands up to smooth at the worried creases in his forehead.

“You okay?”

Qrow smiled weakly and leaned into his touch. “I’m just tired,” he said. “I’m getting too old to stay out this late.” He forced a laugh as weak as his smile. “I’m nearly forty, you know. It’s up there on my horizon. Looming.”

James hummed his disapproval. “Yes, well. Kindly remember that I’m six years older than you, hm? Forty might be looming on your horizon, but it’s a blip in my rearview mirror.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, you old man.” Qrow’s smile was a little closer to genuine this time, and then faded. “You’re aging better than me, at least.”

“You’re aging just fine.”

“Nah. I’ve drunk away most of my brain and my liver’s probably shot to all hell. Going gray already- in my  _ thirties _ , Jim.”

“I have implants in my brain, my liver’s artificial, and I’ve had a gray streak since college,” James reminded him. “What’s this about?”

Qrow shrugged. “Just feeling my mistakes, is all. Got a lot of ‘em. Nearly forty years of ‘em.” He sighed, and burrowed close, burying himself in James as much as he could. “You were supposed to be asleep when I got home,” he said, neatly deflecting the topic. “I was gonna sneak in and slip in and wake up with you in the morning. It was gonna be romantic. I had it all planned out.”

“Ah, but you forgot to account for one thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“I don’t sleep  _ nearly _ so well without you with me. Of course I was going to wake up when you got here.”

“Silly me, should have caught onto that.” He tilted his head back and forced a smile, and, “Um, can I-...”

“Hm?”

There was a beat, and Qrow shook his head. “Nothing. Never mind. Get some sleep, it’s late and I’m exhausted and I’ve been looking forward to sleeping next to you all week.”

“Qrow, is everything okay?”

He smoothed his hands over James’ chest and forced that smile again. “Everything’s fine. You’re here now. Why wouldn’t it be fine?”

James studied him for awhile, watching the tired lines that creased his face and the droop of his eyelids, and finally nodded. “Okay. Get some sleep, then.” A kiss to his forehead, and, “I love you.”

Silence, apart from a sleepy acknowledging hum. Qrow’s eyes had already drifted closed, and as James watched, his breathing evened into true sleep not long after.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, don't take advice from little old ladies on park benches.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making up is hard to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: There's fade-to-black sexual content at the beginning of this chapter! It's not exactly explicit, but it does toe the line. It's the first scene if you want to skip it.
> 
> (A lot of this chapter is just filler, but I needed to cover the whole weekend, so)

-/-

James woke to sunlight and Qrow half-hard against his hip, and because he saw no reason not to do something about that, Qrow woke up very soon after that fully hard, with James’ lips on his neck and hand on his dick.

He hummed and stretched out to lay languorously while James saw to him. “Mmm, now this is a way to wake up,” he said, content for the moment to just leave James to his work. James stopped sucking a mark on his collarbone and leaned up to kiss him deeply, and got a pair of hands tangling into his hair for his efforts.

“Missed you,” James said, and Qrow decided it was time to become an active participant in his own ravishing. He moved his thigh a little, searching, and was rewarded with a pleasant noise from James, a noise that Qrow happily swallowed up in another kiss.

He grinned, “Well, we’re awake now,” and got to work.

-/-

Mercury woke to a heavy thump on the door. He startled and gasped, and inhaled a mouthful of hair in the process. He choked, but it had the side effect that he stopped panicking before he even started, and by the time he’d stopped gagging had otherwise calmed down.

“The hell?”

Emerald sat up- she’d been awake for a bit, he judged. She stretched lazily. “Hazel believes in early mornings,” she said, and yawned. “But we can go back to sleep if you want, it’s a Saturday so there’s nothing important to do.”

He sat up as well. “Nah, I’m awake now.” He eyed her in his periphery. He’d woken in the night and, out of habit, stayed awake for awhile watching over her while she slept. It had given him time to think, and now he made up his mind. “So, um. This thing with your hair.”

She reached back to touch her hair self-consciously. “What about it?”

“It’s really important to you,” he said. “I can tell that, but I’m not- I don’t know why.”

She sighed. “I guess you wouldn’t get it, would you?”

“So  _ make  _ me get it. Um, it’s important to you, so- so it’s important to me. I want to understand.”

She gave him a sharp, searching look at that, but she must have approved of what she saw because she nodded. “Okay. It’s, um, it’s like this. So, most of my guardians- all of my guardians, really- they all didn’t really- they said that- that it was too much trouble to really do anything with my hair. They didn’t know, um, they didn’t know how to take care of it and they, they said it didn’t matter to learn because I wouldn’t be with them long anyway. Or, that was the gist of it, really.”

Mercury’s lips curled into a sneer. “Ugh.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Most of them made me keep it short so it wouldn’t be ‘unmanageable’, but the one before Tyrian let me grow it out as long as I kept it straightened. And then- well- you know about what happened then.”

He nodded. He knew, yes- had gone with her and Cinder every couple months to touch up the perm where it was growing out at the roots. Where they got the money for it was anyone’s guess; he suspected they’d probably stolen it. None of them had any particular scruples about  _ that _ , at least, and Emerald had the quickest fingers.

And then Cinder had left and--

(He’d never really  _ thought _ of it.  _ Everything _ had gotten worse when Cinder left, so what did it matter that she’d gotten frustrated and taken a pair of scissors to her hair? Hell, he’d done the same thing at his last home, when it had finally clicked in his head what the confusing things he’d been feeling ever since puberty kicked in had really  _ meant _ . So  _ so what _ if she cut all her hair off? With everything as bad as it was, what was one more tiny little thing?)

(And why did he never, ever  _ ask _ ?)

“Anyway,” she went on, hugging her knees to her chest. “After I came here it was starting to get all ratty again, and Hazel took one look at it and said he’d find me a hairdresser as soon as he could.” She shrugged. “He asked around. Found out I didn’t know how to do anything with it and then looked for someone who would teach me instead of just doing it and moving on.”

Things were starting to make sense in Mercury’s head. It was a lot of trouble to go through- if that was an example of Hazel’s guardianship, it was no wonder Emerald was so over the moon about him.

Emerald reached over and grabbed her pillow, shoving it into his hands. “He got me this, too- the pillowcase, I mean. It’s satin. Mrs. Coal told him that was better for my hair, and he just- he said okay and got me one. I mean.” She took the pillow back, and rubbed her hand over it slowly. “I know it doesn’t sound like much-”

“No, I get it. At least, I think I get it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I never realized- you never said.”

“You never asked.”

“...yeah.” He hung his head, refused to look at her. “I think I’m guilty of a lot of that.”

“Well.” She considered, and, “We’ve got all weekend ahead of us.”

-/-

When James and Qrow finally emerged from Qrow’s room later, they’d showered and dressed and been made aware that they were both very hungry- for something other than each other- now.

The rest of the family were already in the kitchen. The girls were sitting around the table, a roll of paper spread out between them, while Tai washed the breakfast dishes. When they came in, they got an idle glance before everyone returned to what they were doing, but before they could do something about food, Ruby said, very loudly, “Uncle Qrow has a hickey!”

Qrow’s hand slapped over the mark on his collarbone, where his shirt had inevitably slipped down, and he jabbed a finger of his other hand at her in admonishment. “Hey, hey,” he said. “Any hickies I may or may not have are none of your business, got it?”

Everyone was paying attention now. A blush was spreading up James’ neck.

“Maybe you should put on a different shirt,” he murmured, close enough that only Qrow could hear, and Qrow murmured back, “No point, none of ‘em go high enough up.”

And then, because James was every bit as devious as Qrow claimed and no one else believed, he went on, “You could borrow one of mine.”

Qrow’s knees honest-to-gods buckled. He spun on his heel and disappeared back into his room, returning a moment later in one of James’ t-shirts, which hung loose around his frame but the collar went high enough to cover the marks James had left. 

“All right, so now that we’re done with that unnecessary conversation-” He patted James’ chest. “You go sit down, big guy, I’m making you pancakes.”

Suddenly they had everyone’s attention again.

“Why are you making  _ him _ pancakes?” Nora demanded.

“Nepotism,” Qrow said, moving over to the kitchen.

“You always  _ say _ that. You should make us pancakes, too.”

“What? Come on, I’m trying to be romantic here.”

“That is pretty romantic,” Nora agreed. “I would probably marry a boy if he made romantic pancakes for me.”

“It would be more romantic if you made pancakes for all of us,” Ruby said.

“How so?”

She rolled her eyes. “Duh. Because we want pancakes, and it would make us happy, and Uncle James loves us so much he wants us to be happy, so he would be happy if you made us pancakes. Right, Uncle James?”

She turned her sweetest look onto James, who raised an eyebrow at her. “I feel like I would be digging myself into a hole if I disagreed with you.”

“What about the hole you’re digging with  _ me _ if you agree?” Qrow demanded.

James made a show of considering this, looking from Qrow to Ruby, and back to Qrow. “Sorry Qrow,” he said, shrugging. “The kids take priority.”

“Oh, what- oh, come on!” He huffed. “All right, smarty-britches, you win this round. I’ll make you all some pancakes.” He turned away, dumping flour into the bowl and muttering to himself while he got to work.

While Qrow worked to make second breakfast, James came over to see what the girls were doing.

“We are working on the map for our dungeons game,” Penny explained, scooting over so that James could stand between her and Nora. “We are trying to figure out how far we have traveled since we began our campaign.”

“I’ve been reading your campaign notebook,” James said. “I’m impressed with how creative you guys have gotten.”

“You’re gonna be our tm tonight, right?” Nora asked, and he nodded.

“I have something fun planned for you. I hope you’ll enjoy it.”

Qrow looked up from the pancake batter he was mixing long enough to call, “Neeeeerd!”

-/-

Emerald took Mercury out into the neighborhood after a breakfast of leftover pizza. She’d been getting friendly with some of the local kids, and they ran into one of them while they walked, an older teenager that Emerald introduced as Terra Cotta, which Mercury privately thought was the stupidest name he’d ever heard, apart from maybe Roman Torchwick.

After they parted, Mercury folded his arms in thought. “What I wanna know is, why do I meet so many lesbians, like, constantly?”

Emerald looked impressed. “Forget  _ that _ , what  _ I _ wanna know is how you have such good gaydar. How do you know about Terra?”

“Oh come on, it’s  _ really _ obvious.” When she looked disbelieving, he tilted his head. “Really? You can’t just tell?”

She shook her head. “Maybe it’s because- you know, you’re always making sure you don’t accidentally send lesbian signals. Maybe that’s why you know what all the signals are.”

“Maybe.”

-/-

Ozpin stopped by after lunch to discuss Qrow’s Halloween program with him, sending Oscar off to play with the girls while they talked. Qrow watched him run off, and once he was gone put voice to a thought that had occurred to him recently.

“Hey Oz.”

“Yes?”

“Oscar’s been living with you for like two years now, right?”

“Something like that, yes. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just- you never explained what he was to you. He just turned up one day. What gives?”

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at him. “Ah, I see. He’s- let’s see-” He considered. “My brother, maybe?”

“ _ What _ ?!”

“Or was he a cousin…?”

“You don’t know?”

He stroked his chin thoughtfully at this, and then shook his head. “My family is quite large, you know, it’s not easy to keep track of.”

Qrow held up a hand. “I’m sorry, back up and explain to me again the part where he  _ could _ be your brother. How could he be your  _ brother _ ? You’re like, my age. I think. How old are your parents?”

There was a silence, and then Ozpin looked Qrow right in the eye and said, “Older than me.”

-/-

Hazel had a date that night, apparently, so he left after dinner. Before he left, he reminded them to keep the doors and windows locked, and that Ms. Calavera was home next door in case of an emergency.

“Enjoy your date,” Emerald said, and then they were alone. Once he had pulled out of the driveway, she turned to Mercury with a grin. “Wanna drag the air mattress down here and sleep in the living room?”

“Absolutely.”

-/-

After getting the mattress set up they dug out Hazel’s boxset of the nineties Vampire Mummy Werewolf cartoon and spent several hours laughing themselves sick over the goofy writing and bad bad  _ bad _ animation, before falling asleep in a tangle of limbs and blankets with real smiles on their faces.

They woke up a while later to an animatronic shark woman making a dramatic speech while behind them, the deadbolt on the door clicked slowly. Mercury was on his feet in a second, eyes darting around the room before he’d even properly woken, but Emerald just took his hand and laced their fingers together, other hand coming to his shoulder.

“ _ Breathe _ ,” she whispered. “It’s just Hazel coming home from his date.”

The door opened, and it was indeed Hazel. He looked confused to see them there.

“What are you doing in the living room?”

“We were watching tv and we fell asleep,” Emerald said. Her thumb moved, rubbing circles on Mercury’s knuckles. “How was your date?”

“Not great,” he said. “We probably won’t go out again. Are you watching the Vampire Mummy Werewolf cartoon?”

“Yeah! Mercury’s never seen this one before. Wanna watch it with us for awhile?” In her periphery she could see that Mercury had schooled his expression into his usual disinterested contempt, but his hand was still shaking in hers.

“Sure.” Hazel settled onto the couch, while Emerald dragged Mercury back down to sit on the air mattress with her. She wasn’t the only one watching him, she realized; Hazel was watching him carefully, thoughtfully, and she hoped he wouldn’t ask- well, anything, really, but then- “Is there any popcorn?”

Emerald carefully didn’t let out a relieved sigh, but in her heart she felt it.

-/-

James didn’t really want to leave the comfort of the Xiaolong-Branwen household Sunday afternoon, but he had a meeting scheduled at the Argus Military Base, and he’d put it off long enough as it was.

The leader of the base wasn’t his favorite person in the world, but he didn’t have much choice in the matter. The Polendina Foundation Scholarship Fund was Josef’s legacy, a way to give brilliant young minds the chance to nurture that brilliance, and like hell James was letting Cordova turn away potential candidates just because she didn’t see them having anything to offer the  _ military _ .

Still, by the time he finished up at the base and went to pick up Mercury, he was tired and cranky and just wanted to be home-

-well, no, not entirely accurate. He wanted to be in a home he shared with Qrow, where Qrow could kiss away his exhaustion and smooth away the tired edges until he was just sleepy. That he couldn’t have that- not right now, and possibly not ever- just made him feel more exhausted, more cranky.

Mercury looked as tired as he felt when he arrived to pick the boy up.

“We had a late night,” Hazel said, by way of explanation, while the kids yawned. Mercury had at least already packed his overnight bag when James called, so there was little need to wait around. They only stayed long enough to share a few niceties before they were able to leave.

“Well?” James asked. “Did you have a fun weekend?”

“Hm? Oh.” Mercury had been staring out the window since they turned back onto the main road. “Yeah, it was good.” James wasn’t expecting any details, but Mercury went on with, “We watched the old Vampire Mummy Werewolf cartoon.”

“Oh? Sixties or nineties?”

“Nineties. It was  _ really _ bad.”

James smiled. “It was. I remember watching it with my sister when we were your age, we laughed ourselves sick over some of the writing.”

Mercury looked amused. “Seriously? Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit on that. Not only can I not imagine Glynda ever laughing at anything, I can’t even imagine her being my age.”

“She  _ was _ a kid once, you know.”

“No she wasn’t. She sprang into existence fully formed as a stuffy old lady.”

“Really? Then who in the world was that hellion I grew up with?”

“ _ Hellion _ ?”

James grinned, and, well, why not? He launched into the story of the time Glynda had snuck out to a St*rsh!p concert when they were not very much older than Mercury.*

-/-

Mercury had enjoyed the anecdote about his younger teacher, and the two that followed about both her and James, but as they drew nearer Vale, he went quiet again, staring out the window in thought as they drove. James watched him with concern, but there wasn’t much he could do when Mercury was back to monosyllabic answers, and honestly he was too tired to press anyway. He decided to let it go.

As they drew nearer to Patch Circle, he said, half-apologetically, “I just need to stop by and pick up Penny. We won’t be long.”

“What?” Mercury looked around again, and only just then seemed to realize where they were. “Oh…”

“Sorry.”

They pulled up to the house, and James reminded Mercury that they’d only be a minute before getting out and heading up the walk.

He was halfway there when he heard the car door slam, and turned around to see Mercury coming up behind him. He raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure?”

Mercury shrugged, hands jammed into his pockets and gaze fixed forward.

“All right. If you’re sure.”

-/-

End Act II

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The alternate punchline to this joke is her parents' bafflement when she said she had snuck out to see Fullyclothed Gentlemen.
> 
> Shoutout to my coworker for listening to my explanation of Emerald's backstory and helping me understand the logistics I was working with.
> 
> (Answer the question, Oz.)
> 
> This is the end of Act II! Act III will be a bit of a wait; while I have finished writing it (it is in fact the same length as this one), I would like to get a dent into Act IV before I start posting it, as elements of III may need to be changed as a result of my plans for IV.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween is fast approaching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Act III begins! I'm now about eleven chapters ahead of y'all so I can't remember much of what was going through my head when writing some of this, so no forenotes this time, let's just jump right into it.

-/-

Mercury had a lot to think about on the ride home. He enjoyed the interlude of listening to James talk about Glynda and himself as children, but the distraction only worked for so long, and in awhile he found himself drifting off into his thoughts, staring out the window as they drove and barely acknowledging James’ words when spoken to.

He was thinking about Emerald, mostly. And Penny. And the family that he’d found himself inserted into, and the sheer number of people who had been inconvenienced by his petty demands.

As they drew nearer to Vale, and turned down the familiar roads that led to Patch Circle, the weight of those demands was beginning to bear down on him, the sheer magnitude of how inconvenient he’d been.

When they stopped, while James headed up the walk to collect Penny, he came to a decision, sudden and sharp and as much a surprise to him as James.

“Are you sure?” James asked, that carefully searching look in his eyes.

Mercury shrugged, and shoved his hands into his pockets. No, he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure of anything right now. But if he didn’t do it now, he probably never would.

“All right,” James went on. “If you’re sure.”

-/-

Mercury had not taken two steps into the house before a familiar shriek pierced his hearing and a shape collided with him without any more warning than that.

“Mercury! You’re here!” Ruby cheered, wrapping herself around him while he stiffened at the sudden, unexpected contact. “I saw you coming up the walk!”

Just as soon as she appeared, Ruby was peeled off of him, and Mercury forced himself to relax. Tai was in front of him, holding Ruby under the arms.

“You’ve been told about doing that,” he scolded, and said, to Mercury, “Hi, kiddo.”

“H-hi.” He shoved his hands back into his pockets, and looked around nervously. The house looked more or less the same as he remembered. “Um, we came to pick up Penny.”

“She’s in Ruby and Nora’s room.”

“Right.”

“I’ll go get her,” James said, pushing past Tai and Ruby to go collect his daughter. Tai was still holding Ruby; when Mercury moved deeper into the house, he followed, still hanging onto her. Mercury wondered if he just hadn't thought to put her down, or was trying to prevent further hugs.

Mercury wasn’t really sure what he was looking for. He just wanted to see the house, he supposed, the first- and last- place he’d ever felt truly at home. It hurt a little that it should still look the same, but he wasn’t really sure why.

He made his way to the kitchen, standing just inside the doorway and looking around. Qrow’s room was beyond it- the door was closed right now. He wondered if Qrow was in it. Napping, maybe? He tended to rest on Sundays, since Saturday was one of his drinking nights.

Mercury turned to walk back out of the kitchen, unwilling to risk being there if Qrow came out of his room, and then stopped when he spotted the growth marks on the jamb. Instinctively, his eyes swept over it for his own marks, and then he froze again.

“What-?”

“It was Ruby’s idea,” Tai said, correctly guessing the line of Mercury’s thoughts. He finally set Ruby down. “When Qrow told us about running into you, she said it wouldn’t be right to leave your old name up instead of the one you were using.”

“One of my classmates came out a year ago,” Ruby chirped. “So we learned all about it together as a class.

“That’s- um- yeah.” He freed one hand to rub uncomfortably at his neck, eyes glued to the marks on the wall rather than look at either of them. It had never even occurred to him to think about. “I, uh. Thanks. I guess.”

“Are you sure you want to be here, Mercury?”

His hand went back into his pocket. He shrugged. “I’m really. Not sure about anything right now.”

“Well I’m glad you’re here,” Ruby said. “Does this mean Uncle James can come see us more often?”

He shrugged again. Possibly Ruby wasn’t the best person for him to talk to first time back in this house; she was overwhelming at the best of times, and he was feeling too drained for anything of her level. 

While he considered this, James emerged from Ruby’s room with Penny and the girl he’d seen with Qrow last Christmas- Nora, he supposed. Qrow’s current foster child. It seemed odd that she was still living here, placements didn’t tend to last that long.

“Are you ready to go?” James asked.

He shrugged again. He was starting to feel like this might have been a mistake.

“We’ll go, then. Got everything, Penny?”

“Yes, Father~” she chirped, and then took Mercury’s hand very gently and led him to the door. “Come on, you can tell me about your weekend. I want to know how Emerald is doing.”

-/-

Mercury pulled out of his funk for the ride home enough to tell Penny about his weekend. He talked about Emerald showing him around the neighborhood and about staying up to watch the Vampire Mummy Werewolf cartoon, but left out the part about the fight and the small breakdown he’d had.

“We talked about Halloween this weekend,” Penny said, when he’d run out of things to tell her about. “Ren is going trick-or-treating with Sun and Jaune and Neptune and their brothers, and Nora is not invited because it is a ‘boys’ night’ and there are no girls allowed. And Winter is taking both of her siblings and Oscar, so she will not be able to take Ruby after all. So it will be me, Ruby, and Nora. Three, just like you said. Um, if you are still willing to take us,” she added.

He was about to protest, but her hurt face Friday flashed through his mind, and he found himself saying, instead, “I said I would, didn’t I? If they can live with the disappointment of going with me and not Winter or ~Ren~ then I don’t care either way.” He added, with a glance at James, “You did ask your old man about this, right?”

James chuckled. “She did, yes. All parents are perfectly all right with you and Emerald supervising, provided you stay in the selected neighborhood.”

“Ooh, such  _ freedom _ ,” Mercury teased. “The whole neighborhood, huh?” When James looked unimpressed, he rolled his eyes. “Relax, I’m just messing with you.”

-/-

With Halloween just a few weeks away, and the kids’ plans for trick-or-treating solidified, the conversation at recess and before school turned mostly to costumes. They were almost all of them in double-digits now- barring Ruby, who would turn ten on Halloween- and that meant that they needed to go all out on their costumes. They were not mere  _ children _ anymore; storebought or cardboard costumes would no longer do.

They needed  _ flash _ . They needed  _ flare _ . They needed  _ pizzazz _ . They needed… ideas.

“What about a dragon?” Nora said, holding up her hands as claws and roaring at Penny, who giggled and thrust an imaginary sword at her. Nora clutched her chest and pretended to fall over, only to pop back up immediately. “Or superheroes! I’d make a  _ great _ X-Ray.”

Suddenly, Ruby’s eyes lit up. “Oh! We could wear themed costumes! Penny could be Vav and I’d make a  _ great _ Mad King!”

Nora pouted. “Aww, why do you get to be the Mad King?”

“If you want to be the Mad King why didn’t you say so, instead of X-Ray?”

“I don’t know, I think I just didn’t realize he was an option.”

Behind them, swinging slowly for once, Sun perked up. “Man, I wish I’d thought of that first, being the Mad King would be super fun.”

Penny giggled. “I am beginning to think that we should all go as the Mad King. It would be funny.”

“We three Mad Kings,” Ruby added, giggling as well. “Okay, okay. If we’re doing themed costumes we have to actually talk about it.”

“I dunno,” Nora said. “I kinda like Penny’s idea. Let’s just all be the Mad King.”

Penny put in, “I will be the Mad King if everyone is the Mad King, but if I were to be anyone from X-Ray and Vav I would like to be Hilda. She is my favorite.”

“Really?” Ruby asked.

“There is something about her that I just… like,” Penny said. “I cannot put my finger on it.”

Ruby considered this, and nodded. “I bet you’d be a great Hilda!” she said. “Aww, now I want you to be Hilda. Maybe let’s just be X-Ray and Vav and Hilda? I can be Vav, that would be fun too!” Her eyes lit up again. “Oh! I have that ORF plush that I won from Jaune’s biggest brother! You could borrow her!”

“When did you win an ORF plush?”

“Oh, like, three weeks ago? He bet me I couldn’t get him with my nerf gun and I could have the plush if I did.”

“Did you?”

“No, but I accidentally broke a vase he hated so he gave it to me anyway. Also, turns out? Nerf guns do not make good sniper rifles.”

-/-

For most of the year, Mercury had been toeing the line in terms of skipping class; he tried to have his staying days outnumber his skipping days, though he’d been getting worse at it lately.

Today he stayed, and by the time last period rolled around and it was time to dismiss them for gym, he was regretting his decision. He was debating whether he could sneak away on the way to gym when Glynda called on him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“I’d like to speak with you about your book report,” she said. “I’ll send a note to Coach letting him know you won’t be in class.”

“He’ll be more surprised by the note than my absence,” Mercury pointed out, but she handed a note to Blake as the rest of the class left, all the same.

Once the rest of the class was gone, she took a bucket of cleaning water from behind her desk and moved over to start cleaning the blackboard. “You’re not in trouble,” she said, when he moved to sit at a desk near the front. “I really liked your report. You’ve got a long way to go in terms of grammar and composition, but your ideas are actually very well-thought-out.”

Mercury shrugged. He grabbed a spare cloth from the pile she kept near the board and got to work cleaning the other end.“I just  _ really _ hate  _ The Garden Nobody Knows About _ .”

She gave him a small smile. “I do too, actually. They make me put it on the list, but if I could take it off I would.”

This was news to Mercury- he’d assumed teachers just didn’t care one way or another how the students took the books they were assigned. “It’s not even that it’s a bad story,” he added. “It just always bugged me that the cripple kid wasn’t  _ really _ cripple- it was all in his  _ head _ .” He sneered. “Where are the books about kids who just  _ are _ disabled and they’re always  _ going _ to be and no amount of fresh air and exercise will change that?”

“Not on the board-approved classroom reading list, unfortunately.”

He sneered again at that, but didn’t respond.

“I actually wanted to ask how you’re settling in with James,” she said, after a few minutes of cleaning in silence.

“What, you can’t just ask him?”

“I have asked him,” she said, leveling one of her stern looks on him. “Now I’m asking  _ you _ .”

He rolled his eyes, and then shrugged and tossed his rag into the bucket. “It’s not so bad. I’ve had worse but, you know…”

“That’s not exactly a high bar to clear,” she agreed, and then waited for him to go on.

“I don’t have any real complaints,” he said, eventually. “I mean, I have lots of complaints, but like… they feel like  _ normal _ complaints. Like, he has a shitton of rules for me to follow, all the time, kind of complaints.”

“That’s not exactly a bad thing,” said Glynda, who herself kept her students on a rather short leash, and expected them to act like the adults that so many of them believed they very nearly almost were.

Mercury rolled his eyes. “You know what? I can’t believe I didn’t just immediately realize you two are related.”

“You couldn’t see the family resemblance?”

There was an unfamiliar  _ something _ glinting in her eye when she said that. Mercury stared, and, “ _ Oh _ ! You’ve got  _ jokes _ !”

“Hm.” A tiny smile touched her lips, for just a moment. She dropped her own rag in the bucket and gave him a smug look. “No one will  _ ever _ believe you.”

Mercury’s eyes narrowed. “You  _ sick son of a bitch _ ,” he breathed.

“Language, please,” which prompted him to let out a long, loud groan.

“ _ There’s _ that family resemblance!”

If she was amused, she gave no indication; she put the bucket of water away to be dumped later, and took her seat behind her desk before setting a paper on top of it. When Mercury followed and looked, he could see that it was his own. It was covered in red pen; for all that she’d claimed to like it, she’d clearly found plenty of flaws in it.

“I would like you to redo this,” she said. “This time with the grammar in tact. The writing is fine; the structure needs work.”

“Aww, man,” he groaned. “I thought you said I wasn’t in trouble.”

“Would you rather go to gym instead?”

Mercury considered this for a long time, eyeing her suspiciously, and then grabbed the paper and went over to dig in his bag for his notebook and his borrowed copy of  _ The Garden Nobody Knows About _ .

“That why you kept me out, then? Trying to protect me or something?”

“No. I just thought that getting out of gym might be a nice incentive for you to be more willing to rewrite your paper.”

He continued to eye her suspiciously, but nonetheless he took his things over to the classroom computer and got to work rather than argue.

For a few minutes the classroom was quiet apart from the clacking of the keys on the ancient computer Glynda kept for student use or the scratch of her pen while she went through his classmates’ papers, but after awhile Mercury spoke.

“So how’s Snow doing?”

“Good. She misses you, I think. She was pleased when we found out you were with James. She thinks he’ll be good for you.”

He shrugged, not sure how to respond to that, and, “Does he know I lived with you for like a week last spring?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t mention it at the time because I didn’t want to make him keep things from Qrow, and it doesn’t seem very relevant now. Are you going to tell him?”

“Nah, I think I’ll keep it to myself.” He looked smug. “I only get to tell him once, there’s gonna be a moment where it’ll be prime. I’ll save it for then.”

-/-

Later, much later, after the students had gone home and Glynda still remained behind to grade papers, there was a knock at her door and Qrow sauntered in without bothering to wait for an answer. She glanced up when he came in, and turned her attention back to the paper in her hand.

“Qrow.”

“Glynda.” He leaned back on the desk nearest hers. “Well, I’m here. What’s this about?”

“Hm.” She pursed her lips irritably, and took her phone from her shirt. A moment to unlock it, and she passed it to him. “I got this text this morning, from your…  _ friend _ , Torchwick.”

“You know you and Jim have the exact same tone for referring to Torchwick?” he said, and there was a brief pause while he read. When he’d done, he groaned. “Dammit, Torch. The hell.”

Glynda held out her hand for her phone, which he handed back to her. “First questions first, how does this man have my number?”

Qrow shrugged, and dropped down into the desk to sulk instead. “I don’t know. Probably snooped through my phone when I was drunk. He does that sometimes. S’how he got everyone else’s number.” When Glynda took off her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation, he gave her a defensive look and said, “Hey, it’s pretty apparent he doesn’t have scruples or anything, betraying a confidence like that.”

“Yes, I gathered that.” She put her glasses back on. “Which brings me to my next question. Is this true?”

He looked away, ashamed. “...yeah.”

“And you haven’t told anyone? Except-” She waved her phone pointedly. He shrugged, and didn’t answer. “Qrow,  _ why _ would you…?”

“Cause I don’t wanna disappoint everyone, okay? If they knew-  _ god _ , I can’t….” He buried his face in his hands, only for a moment to pull himself together, and ran his hands through his hair. “Gonna tattle on me?”

“Qrow,” she sighed. “I’m not planning on it.”

“But...” he prompted, and she went on.

“Qrow, you are my  _ friend _ . Contrary to how we sometimes act, I want good things for you. I want stability for you, I want  _ this _ for you. I’m  _ happy _ for you.”

“ _ But _ ,” he repeated, more firmly this time. This time, she relented.

“ _ But _ , James is my little brother, and  _ his _ stability is my priority. I’ll keep this quiet, but if this secrecy starts to hurt James, then I  _ will  _ tell him myself.”

“Still convinced I’m gonna break his heart, huh.”

She leveled an unimpressed look on him. “I’m convinced that watching him tear himself apart after losing Josef was hard enough, and I refuse to watch him experience that level of pain a second time.”

“Hm.” Qrow stood and began toward the door. “You’re as bad as Tai with that little brother shit,” he said. “He’s a big boy now, doesn’t need you protecting him.”

“Qrow-”

“See ya around, Glynda.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I listened to the audiobook of The Secret Garden recently. I actually like the book, but there's a lot of era-specific racism and ableism inherent to it that bugs me, and I realized Mercury would probably have more reason to dislike it that me.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury's learns a little bit about the paths he missed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little sick right now, so the next chapter is taking its own sweet time being written. Oh well, that's what the buffer is for.
> 
> Emetophobia content warning for this chapter.

-/-

Torchwick was trying to fix his sink when his phone buzzed. He checked the text- it was from Qrow.

_ You got me in trouble with Glynda _

_ Coffee? _

More for the excuse to get out from under the sink than anything, he shot off a quick,  **Release the Grounds in 3o?** , then grabbed his hat and cane from the table when he got a  _ y _ in return. Explaining himself to Qrow wasn’t high on his list of things he wanted to do today, but it was higher than fixing his sink.

He’d be better just making Junior do it anyway.

-/-

“Before I yell at you, do me a favor and delete Glynda’s number from your phone,” Qrow said, when he joined up with Torchwick thirty minutes later, before he’d even sat down.

Torchwick rolled his eyes, then made a great show of taking out his phone and going through each step to deleting Glynda’s number. Qrow took a seat.

“Thank you. Now,  _ why _ did you go blabbing to her about my business?”

“I thought maybe if you won’t let  _ me _ talk you out of being stupid, you’ll let her.”

“Yeah, well, unfortunately for you, Glynda might be a lot of things but unscrupulously nosy isn’t one of ‘em.”

“I have scruples!” Torchwick protested. “They’re just not the same as yours,” and when Qrow gave him a disbelieving look, went on, “Or, you know, as numerous. ...And easier to ignore when they’re inconvenient. All right, I’m pretty unscrupulous. Guilty as charged.”

“You’re an ass, Torch.”

“I’m an ass who has your best interests at heart. So Glynda isn’t going to make you tell everyone the big secret, huh?”

“No! Because she’s not  _ you _ !” He made a frustrated noise. “Why does this matter to you so much?”

“Because you  _ need _ them, baby bird. Like it or not, this isn’t something you can do alone.”

“I’m  _ not _ doing it alone,” Qrow said. “That’s kind of the whole  _ point _ , you know?”

“I mean, you need your  _ family _ .”

“That still doesn’t say why  _ you _ care so much.”

Torchwick just looked unimpressed. “Do I really need to spell it out for you? All right, fine. Because I care about  _ you _ . Gods help me for my  _ terrible _ judgment, but I actually  _ like _ you. And I’ve spent eight years watching you tear yourself apart and now-” He huffed. “ _ Listen _ , Qrow, because I’m not saying this again, and I will deny it in a court of law if asked. I  _ like. you _ . You’re one of my closest friends. Your happiness and stability are actually  _ important _ to me.” He gagged. “Ugh. You’re the worst, baby bird.”

Qrow stared, trying to grab the thread of the conversation as it retreated from his grasp. He snatched at the first thing he could. “How can I be one of your closest friends?” he demanded. “I know jack fucking shit about you!”

“You know more than most people.”

“I know you’re not a natural redhead and you’ve been working the bar since you were sixteen. That ain’t much to know.”

“That’s a lot to know about  _ me _ .” He shrugged. “What can I say, I like my privacy.”

“You’re an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in bullshit, Roman Torchwick.”

“Yes, well.” He shrugged again. “So about how you’re going to tell your family this very important thing you’re keeping from them.”

“Give it a rest, Torch. I’ll tell them, I will. Just not yet. M’ not ready yet.”

“When will you be ready?”

“I don’t know!” He tossed his hands in the air and sighed. “Ugh. January, okay? It’ll be a year January. If I-” He scrubbed his hands over his face, pushing his bangs back up. “If I make it to January, I’ll tell them. Can you leave it alone until then?”

“Hmm…” Torchwick nodded. “All right. January.”

“Thank you.”

They were silent for a few minutes, Qrow trying to rewrite his perception of Torchwick in light of his new revelations, Torchwick trying to reorient himself after willingly unveiling some of his emotions for actual display. After a few minutes, he rested his chin on his folded hands and gave Qrow his most flirtatiously bullshit face.

“So, how’s the family? The kids all right? Keeping their grades up? How’s Tai doing? Does he ever ask about me?”

Qrow slapped his palm to his forehead. “Seriously?  _ Why _ would Tai ask about you?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m so dashingly sexy that I make him question his sexuality. It’s possible.”

“You’re delusional.”

“Oh, come on.” He pouted. “You don’t know how lucky you are, baby bird. Your dream man walked into your classroom and not only was he gay, he was available! And attracted to you too! Love at first sight actually worked out for you!”

Qrow laughed. “What? Jim’s not my dream man. I mean, he is  _ now _ , don’t get me wrong, but I mean- when we met I mostly just thought he was handsome and didn’t really think beyond that. If the kids hadn’t pushed us together as hard as they did to begin with we would have stayed passing acquaintances. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight.”

“Tch,” was the response, and they fell into silence again, this time with Qrow staring out the window, thoughts drifting unbidden to James until a piece of the conversation inserted itself very loudly into his conscious realization. He shot his gaze around to Torchwick so fast that his neck popped, his eyebrows climbing up as he did.

“Holy shit, Torch. Really? Holy  _ shit _ .”

“What are you…” and his own eyes widened. “Oh no.”

“ _ Seriously _ ?”

“Oh  _ gods _ .” Torchwick’s head thumped onto the table. “Well, might as well just kill me now. I’m going to die of embarrassment anyway.”

Qrow snorted. “Melodramatic baby.”

“I know how to make your death look like an accident, you know.”

“I guess I really do know more about you than most people.”

“Why do I like you again?”

-/-

The girls had decided to be X-Ray, Vav, and Hilda for Halloween, so after school Penny followed Mercury up to his room to ask for his help making her costume.

“Most of her costume is just regular clothes,” she said, “but I will need help making her ray gun.”

“Really going all out on this, huh?”

“It will only be recognizably a costume while I am with Ruby and Nora,” Penny pointed out. “So I need some indication that I am dressed up.”

He agreed to help her, but only a little bit, and once she had extracted the promise of his aid she went on, “Do you have any ideas for your costume? You could go with the theme and be the Mad King. You are  _ nearly _ handsome enough.”

“Laying it on kinda thick there, squirt.” He graced her with a half-fond smirk. “Anyway, I’m not wearing a costume. I’m just there to supervise you little kids, I’m not wearing a costume myself.”

“Why not?”

“Cause I’m too old for that little kid stuff. I’m practically fourteen.”

“You are  _ thirteen _ ,” Penny reminded him, and he waved that away.

“My birthday’s like the first week of November, I’m as good as fourteen. Way too old to go dressing up.”

“Oh! I did not know it was your birthday soon!” Penny clapped her hands together. “Are you going to have a birthday party?”

Mercury gave her a pointed look. “You really missed that whole ‘way too old’ thing, didn’t you?”

Penny frowned. “I do not think it must be very nice to get older. You cannot enjoy anything fun anymore.”

He shrugged. “That stuff’s lame, anyway. So what about your costumes? Why do you get stuck being Hilda while your pals get to be the superheroes?”

“I wanted to be Hilda,” Penny said. “She is my favorite character.”

“Really? But she’s just a grouchy smarty pants. What’s so great about her?”

Penny gasped. “What is there  _ not _ to like?! She is  _ so _ smart! Just like my daddy was, and when she was lonely, she just  _ made  _ a  _ whole _ friend! And so many other interesting things, too! And when things were very bad, she was willing to work to stop them from happening!” She twiddled her fingers nervously. “I  _ like _ her, grouchy smarty pants or not.”

“All right, all right. I think we’ve established at this point that you’ve got weird taste.”

-/-

Nearly an hour later, Penny was still in Mercury’s room. She’d been sprawled on his bed for awhile, reading, but then she had gotten distracted telling Mercury about her last birthday party, and mentioned being six months older than Nora.

“When we are sisters, I will be her big sister, because my birthday is in August and her birthday is in February.”

“What?” Mercury turned his full attention on her. “Sisters? What?”

Penny lit up. “Oh! Yes! When Father and Mr. Qrow finally get married, Nora and I will be sisters!”

She kept talking after that, but Mercury didn’t hear anything she said. His ears were ringing at her words, at the implication of her words; his stomach was rolling and he felt like he was going to throw up. He struggled to focus on Penny, who was looking worried.

“-look ill. Are you okay?”

He, very fortunately, made it to the bathroom before being sick. It was hours since lunch; there was nothing to come up but bile: it burned the back of his throat and brought pained tears stinging his eyes.

He was a  _ fool _ , a godsdamn idiot; he heaved again, squeezing his eyes shut, willing away the weakness of having  _ ever _ thought that-

_ should have been  _ **_me_ ** _ should have been me it was never going to be me too much trouble problem child inconvenient idiot  _ **_idiot_ ** _ why would you ever think that he’d  _ **_ever_ ** _ want a kid like you when he could have a nice girl with no problems instead that should have been me  _ **_should have been me_ **

-he could have had a happy ending, if he’d only behaved himself.

There was a tapping on the door and a concerned, “Mercury?”. His knees hit the tile with a metallic thunk. He forced out a strangled, “Go away!” and folded himself over until his forehead was resting on the rim of the toilet. A few seconds, and the sound of retreating footsteps. He rocked back onto his heels and dug his hands into his eyes, willing away every bad feeling in him, every weakness that would drive him to feeling this way.

_ Idiot _ .

-/-

He showered while he was in the bathroom, letting the near-scalding water crash against his back while he tried not to look down too much, tried not to think about all the ways he’d ruined his own life, tried not to think about how he had only himself to blame for his troubles-

_ Why _ couldn’t he have just  _ stopped _ picking fights with Yang? He’d found literally the only button Qrow’d  _ had _ and pushed it over and over until he’d had no  _ choice _ but to get rid of him, and then spent the three years since blaming Qrow for breaking his word. What was  _ wrong _ with him? Why couldn’t he just- just  _ work _ ?

When he finally did come out of the bathroom, he only made it as far as his room before James leaned into the hallway and said, “Mercury? Come in here, we need to talk.”

Mercury considered, just for a moment, refusing, just carrying on into his room. He knew, understood now, that James would not push. Would leave him to his space, and let him be until he was ready to talk.

But that would be-

_ Inconvenient _

-rude, he guessed, so he turned and shuffled down the hall to James’ study. 

“I’m starting to really dread hearing that phrase,” he said, dropping himself onto the couch while James took his usual seat in his desk chair. A part of him was relieved by James’ usual courtesy with leaving the door open, and not putting himself between Mercury and it, but another, louder, angrier part was just pointing out this was one more silly little weakness that James had to cater to. He folded his arms and slouched down into his seat, trying to adopt some semblance of his usual cocky disinterest.

Judging by the concerned way James was studying him, this wasn’t working.

“You don’t like being asked if you’re okay,” James said, after a long silence.

Oh. Penny must have blabbed. Mercury shrugged. James went on.

“Is it the words, or the sentiment? I can avoid the words easily enough, but if it’s the sentiment we have to find other ways to ask after your wellbeing that don’t set you off. I can’t take care of you if I don’t know when you need to be taken care of.”

It was so different than Mercury’s experience that he choked on a bitten off laugh at the absurdity. Tyrian had been delighted when he found out Mercury was so weak to just a simple inquiry; it had been such an easy way to provoke him and he’d loved it. James, he knew, would never: he was too sensitive to his responsibility. All the same, Mercury couldn’t help the instinct to lie, deflect,  _ don’t let him see your weakness _ .

Mercury’s eyes flickered to James’ arm. In short sleeves, it was more apparent than usual that it went all the way up. He’d understand, wouldn’t he? If anyone would, it was him.

“I was eight,” he said, barely above a whisper, and thunked one leg for clarification. “They took me from my dad after that, and mom had ran off ages ago, so I didn’t. Um.” He clenched one hand in his pajamas. “I stayed in the hospital after that. For nearly a year. Recovering. And I couldn’t. I couldn’t.” He broke off, scrubbed his hands through damp hair until he knew it was sticking up. “I used to be really speedy. I was  _ fast _ . I  _ had _ to be. And then I. I couldn’t get around on my own at all. And I was-” He shuddered. “ _ Fuck _ .” 

He broke off, leaned on his knees and dug his hands into his hair, staring at a spot on the floor rather than look up and see the pity he just  _ knew _ would be in James’ eyes. After a few minutes, though, he pulled himself together and started again.

“I was  _ scared _ ,” he said. “I was weak and I was scared and no one would  _ listen to me _ and they hovered and coddled and I told them not to touch me but they  _ had _ to because they had to  _ take care of me _ , and I  _ couldn’t run away _ and all they ever said was ‘Oh are you  _ okay _ , sweetie? Are you  _ okay _ ? You’re shaking, dear, are you  _ okay _ ?’ I  _ hated it _ . I hated  _ them _ .” He shuddered again, and folded himself up with his forehead to his knees. 

After, once more, pulling himself together, he said a quiet, “It’s just the words that I hate,” into his knees.

After all, it would be easy for James to avoid the  _ words _ .

-/-

Mercury fled a moment later, not giving James a chance to reply. James heard the slam of his bedroom door and stayed as he was, staring thoughtfully into the middle distance.

He’d suspected, of course. And he understood.

There was something else niggling at the back of his head. A burrowing thought of  _ why _ had Mercury told him all of that?

He didn’t have to. James had been careful to ask in a way that wouldn’t seem to be pressing for more information than necessary, than was comfortable. But Mercury had opened up anyway, given him the context for his feelings that would make it easier for James to anticipate his needs. He’d been… helpful. Carefully so, and painfully so, judging by that breakdown, but he’d made the decision to let James in, however briefly.

A small smile touched James’ lips. Was he finally getting through to the boy? It was possible, he supposed.

It also just felt…  _ easy _ . Way too easy.

James frowned. Something was  _ wrong _ .

-/-

Mercury bolted his door and slid down to sit with his back against it. He rolled his phone from hand to hand for a few minutes, considering, and then dialled up Emerald.

It took her forever to answer. He had to hang up and redial twice before she finally picked up, sounding a little breathless.

“Sorry!” she said hastily. “We’ve got company and I left my phone in my room. You’ll never believe what’s happening! You know that empty house across from ours?”

He vaguely recalled that from his tour. “Y-es…”

“Well some lady just came by to look at it! She wants to move into it! She came over to talk to Hazel about the neighborhood, and MERC. Get this. She is GUNNING for him.”

“What?”

“Yeah! Like, Hazel’s a handsome dude, right? Like, this lady thinks so, she has her eyes SET on him, and she is aiming for the plates. And she is NOT being subtle.” She laughed. “I don’t know if Hazel’s having it or not but he hasn’t made her leave yet. Actually, hell, I don’t even know if he likes women at all, he’s never said and he never talks about his dates much. Man. It’s too bad you’re not still here right now, you’d love this.”

She stopped and waited for his reaction, and when he remained silent, “Merc? What’s up? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not-” he tried, and stopped, and tried again. “Qrow-” Oh gods, he was an  _ idiot _ .

“What did he do? Mercury? Talk to me, come on.” More silence; and a worried, “Hey, I’m here, okay? I’m here.”

He opened his mouth to tell her everything, and stopped, swallowing his words back down. How could he have been so  _ stupid _ ?

When more silence hung over them, Emerald gave a quiet, “Hey.”

“Hn?”

“I’m still here. Do you just wanna sit quiet for awhile?”

“Hm.”

“Okay.” There was the sound of the door closing, and he heard shuffling that told him she was sitting against her own. “I’ll stay here. Just tell me if you need me to say something.”

“Mn.”

For a long time, there was mostly silence. He could hear her breathing, sometimes, could, if he strained, make out the idle tapping of her fingers against her- belt? It sounded like leather, anyway. Shoes, maybe. She hummed softly a few times, flat and tuneless and probably intended so that he could hear that she was still there more than anything.

After awhile, he found his voice again, albeit rather hoarse, and said, “I uh. I found out that. Qrow adopted Nora. The foster kid. The girl I saw him- saw him with last. Um. Last Christmas.”

The soft  _ oh _ she breathed in response to that told him that at least he didn’t have to spell out how stupid he’d been.

“...I’m an idiot,” he finally said.

“You’re not.”

“Kids like us don’t get happy endings,” he went on, ignoring her. “I don’t know why I… thought anything else…” He sighed. Decided to change the subject. “S’my birthday next month.”

“Yeah it is! Our little boy is finally growing up!”

“Shut the fuck up, Em, you’re only four months older than me.”

“Tch, whatever.”

He didn’t exactly smile, but his expression loosened, just a tiny bit. Barely any at all.

“Thanks, Em,” he said softly.

“Of course, Merc. You know I’m here for you.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurred to me that no one had bothered to tell Merc about Nora.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life keeps living, even when you want it to pause for awhile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are now entering a stretch of chapters I like to call "I had no idea what I was going for at this point so I just wrote whatever I thought of and hoped something would come up", also known as the soft chapters. This will carry on for the rest of the arc, so you guys can relax for a bit while the story gets back on track.

-/-

On Wednesday, James finished his work early, and drove to the school to see Qrow. He had a rare free afternoon; assuming Mercury had stayed at school, he tended to go off with Winter more often than not, and Penny had been invited over to her new friend Ciel’s house for a few hours.

He arrived about halfway through last period, and was directed to the auditorium, where Qrow was working on the Halloween program. He had his back to the doors when James came in, and so he didn’t notice he was there until several students spotted him and waved. He looked around, and even from this distance his smile was apparent: part of James was smug enough to think that smile was for him, but he knew better, knew it just meant Qrow was enjoying himself.

“Take five, guys,” Qrow said, coming down from the stage to join James halfway down the aisles. “What’s up, big man?”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your rehearsal. I’ve got a free afternoon, I was going to catch you once school was out.”

“O~oh, free afternoon, huh?” He glanced around at the kids- mostly sitting in their little clusters talking, though Neptune and Ruby were entertaining their classmates by throwing exaggerated faces at James and Qrow’s backs. They swapped to expressions of pure innocence when Qrow turned around; he shot them suspicious looks, and turned back to James. “All right, I gotta get back to this lot. Have a seat, you can watch our rehearsal.”

James moved toward the fifth row, glancing around the auditorium. “Are you the only adult here?”

Qrow scoffed on his way back to the stage. “What, you think my colleagues ain’t gonna jump at the chance to dump their kids on some other sod for forty minutes?” When this got protests from the kids, he added, “Teachers need breaks too, guys.”

-/-

Once the final bell rang, most of the kids headed off to meet the buses, a few high-fiving James on their way by, and Qrow joined him in the seats while the dozen or so waiting on parents played on the stage.

“So what have you got planned for this free afternoon?” Qrow teased. “Apart from staring at me while I work, I mean.”

“Was I staring at you?”

“The kids noticed. They were making fun of you, by the way.”

“And you didn’t stop them?”

“Who do you think started them?”

James rolled his eyes. “You’re a menace to society.”

“Hey, you knew what you were getting into when you asked me to go steady*,” Qrow reminded him. “I might be a menace but you love me, and I think that says more about you than it does about me.”

“Are you calling my taste into question?”

“I’m calling  _ something _ into question.” He paused to call back Neptune, who had disappeared behind the stage, and went on, “I got an idea, how about we go to Sockhop? We can split an ice cream soda and then make out in the bathroom like horny teenagers.”

“Qrow, I am  _ not _ making out with you in the bathroom of an ice cream parlour where anyone can walk in on us.”

-/-

There was a bug going around school. Despite efforts to the contrary, the Branwen-Xiaolong household managed to get hit: Nora, fortunately, was one of those people who just plain never got sick, but first Ruby and then Yang came down with it. Nora was moved into Qrow’s room for the duration to temporarily quarantine her just in case, and Yang and Ruby missed two days of school to recover.

On Friday, Tai went up to the school to pick up Yang’s homework from Glynda, and was surprised to see Roman storming out of the principal’s office at the same time he was passing through the lobby on the way out. They both stopped short in surprise. Tai spoke first.

“Roman? What are you doing here?”

“Yelling at teachers,” Roman said, and jerked his head toward the office. “And anyone else who needs it.”

Tai frowned, confused, and then understanding dawned and he said, “Ah. Junior must be busy.”

“Oh, well, you know.” Roman shrugged lightly. “Being a criminal kingpin* doesn’t leave much time for,” and here he raised his voice and directed his comment over his shoulder, obviously meant to be heard in the office, “yelling at incompetent administration!” Tai laughed nervously at that, and Roman went on more normally. “What about you? Goldilocks isn’t in trouble, is she?”

“No, nothing like that. She’s come down with the flu, I came to pick up her homework.” He held up the large binder Glynda had supplied him with, and frowned at it. “...she will not be doing all of this, I think.”

Roman stuck an arm through Tai’s, companionable and all charm. “Poor goldilocks, this flu season is rough, isn’t it? Come on, you can buy me coffee and tell me about it.”

“Roman, I’m not-”

“As a FRIEND,” he said. “Jesus, you hit on a guy a few-”

“-hundred-”

“-times and never live it down.” He pouted, and whacked Tai lightly in the chest with his cane. “Come on, it’ll be fun. I never see Qrow anymore so I’m behind on gossip about your family.”

Tai rolled his eyes. “All right, we can get coffee. But we can’t be long, I have two sick girls at home to take care of.”

“Of course, of course! Just give me half an hour of your time, that’s all I ask.”

-/-

“So who’s with the girls right now?” Roman asked, when they reconvened at Release the Grounds ten minutes later. Contrary to his words, he’d paid for their coffee himself, and left a generous tip in the tip jar as well.

“I got Mrs. Wukong to come over and look after them while I was at work,” Tai said. “She can work from anywhere so she makes a good go-to when we need someone.”

“Wukong, Wukong. That’s the weird little monkey boy who hit me with a stick at your new year’s party, right?”

“That’s Sun. Why did he hit you with a stick?”

“Do I look like I understand the inner machinations of children’s minds?”

“Fair, fair.” Tai took a thoughtful sip of his coffee. “I thought you said you wanted me to pay for these.”

He waved that away. “There was a bachelor party at the bar last night, I made some really good tips.  _ And _ got the best man’s phone number. I’m in a generous mood. If it’s a problem, you can always get the next one.”

Tai considered this, and then nodded. “All right. Next one’s on me, then.”

-/-

By the time Tai made it home- only a little bit later than he’d planned, thankfully- Nora and Sun had gotten off of the bus already, and were in the living room playing Mud Mummy Invasion while Mrs. Wukong worked on her laptop.

He waved at the three in the living room, and went to the back to check on Ruby and Yang. They were both in Yang’s room, watching a movie on her tv.

“Hey, kiddos,” he said, coming to sit on the bed beside Ruby, who immediately whined and scooted over to cuddle pitifully against him. “How are you feeling?”

“Baaaaad,” Ruby said, and curled around to rest her head on his thigh. He gave her a fond smile and brushed a hand over her hair gently, then turned to Yang.

“What about you?”

“I can’t breathe,” Yang said through heavily stuffed sinuses.

“You sound terrible,” Tai teased. He reached over to feel her forehead, giving a nod of approval that her fever seemed to have faded a bit. “But you don’t feel as warm as you did. Sit up for a second, Ruby,” he added, and repeated the process with her. She, too, seemed less warm, though still moreso than Yang. “Hm.”

“I’m tired of being sick,” Ruby whined, and curled back up, half in his lap. He traced soothing fingers along her face and hair.

“How about I make some ginger garlic soup for you tonight, huh? Just like Yehyeh used to make for me when I was a little boy and had a fever, okay?”

“That sounds nice,” Ruby mumbled into his thigh, and Yang nodded her own agreement, so he peeled Ruby off of him and tucked her back in next to her sister, then headed out.

-/-

Mrs. Wukong and Sun left not too long after that, but not before Sun and Nora managed to get into a wrestling match over the results of their game, which were apparently disputed. Once they’d left, Nora followed Tai into the kitchen, eyeing the rug burn on her arm thoughtfully and trying to decide how much it hurt.

Not much, she concluded, and climbed up to sit at the counter while Tai began rummaging through the the drawer for his recipe cards.

“Well, looks like it’s just gonna be the two of us tonight, sweetie. Ruby and Yang are still out for the count and your dad won’t be home till late.”

“What are we doing for dinner?”

“Well, I’m making ginger garlic soup for Ruby and Yang,” he said, and, “A ha~” when he found the right card. “It’s good for fever, or so my father told me every time I had one. What would you like? If you want soup too, you’ll save me some trouble.”

“I’ve never had ginger garlic soup,” Nora said, eyeing the recipe card with all the mistrust of an ten year old eyeing a recipe card for a dubious sounding dish she’s never had before. “Can I have something…  _ with _ it? In case I don’t like it?”

Tai chuckled. “How about you and I have soup and sandwiches?”

“What kind of sandwiches?” she asked, squinting suspiciously at him.

“Garlic, of course!”

“Ugh...!”

“I’m  _ kidding _ ,” he assured her, reaching over to ruffle her hair. “I’ll grill you a cheese instead, okay?”

“That sounds  _ way _ better.”

“...with garlic.”

“Uncle Tai!”

-/-

Tai and Nora decided to stay up watching a movie, and ended up watching the whole Men Who Wear Black Suits trilogy. Nora fell asleep early in the third, and by the time the credits began rolling, Tai had dozed off as well, not fully asleep so he could listen out for his daughters but still resting soundly enough that when Qrow got home and went looking for his own daughter, he didn’t immediately wake up at the footfalls through the kitchen.

Qrow gave them a sleepily fond look for a moment before leaning over and nudging Tai gently.

“Hmnah?” He woke up and looked around blearily. “What? Qrow? What time is it?”

“It’s past midnight. Hey, kiddo,” he added, because Nora had woken as well.

She sat up and rubbed at one eye, and yawned. “Did I fall asleep?”

“Yeah you did. Come here.” He held out his arms, and she let him lift her up, nestling against his shoulder sleepily. “Come on, let’s get you to bed, kay?”

-/-

Qrow got Nora tucked in and settled, and sat with her for a few minutes, humming softly and stroking her hair till sleep had claimed her once more. He got up and slipped back into the kitchen.

By the time he emerged, Tai was cleaning up the few dishes leftover from their movie and dinner. Qrow took a seat at the counter, and after a moment to steel himself, spoke.

“Hey Tai? Can I talk to you for a second?”

“It beats doing dishes.” Tai took a seat across from him. “What’s up?”

“Um, so.” Qrow fidgeted restlessly. “I mean, this may not come to anything anytime soon, but uh. I don’t want it to take you by surprise when it really comes up- so I just- um…” He rubbed his neck nervously. Looked away. “So, uh, before this Mercury thing started, me and Jim were talking seriously about, uh… me and Nora moving in with them.”

“Wow.” Tai stared. “I didn’t… realize you guys were so serious.”

Qrow shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really see myself with anyone else,” he said. “I’m about as committed as I can get here. And I…” He trailed off. Flushed.

“Qrow?”

“Those weekends they spend here. When I wake up and Jimmy and Penny are here and we’re all together, and I just.” He buried his face in his hands for a second and gave a hoarse laugh. “It just feels so  _ right _ and then they have to go home for ages and I’m- god, Tai, I just. I’m tired of him having to  _ go home _ . I want us to have. The same home.”

Tai laughed. “Wow, you’re in really deep, aren’t you?” He reached out and took one of Qrow’s hands, folded it between his own. “Qrow, this is your life and your relationship. If this feels like the right next step for you, then take it.”

Qrow gave him a small smile and turned his hand to clasp it with Tai’s. “I don’t know if it’ll happen,” he said. “I mean, this whole Mercury thing kinda threw a wrench in our plans for awhile. But I just. Wanted to let you know. This affects you, whatever decision we make- I don’t want you to be blindsided or anything.”

“Qrow, for the past twenty years we’ve not lived together for  _ three _ of them. Total. If you being happy with James means losing you in my home, I’ll take those seventeen years and treasure them and wish you the best. Okay? Don’t worry about me.”

Qrow’s face was still flushed; he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and said, a little sheepishly, “Ha ha, you love your brother.”

-/-

Qrow slept in the next morning, and woke to his phone buzzing under his neck. Nora had snuggled against him in the night; he tried to find it without waking her, contorting himself into positions he hadn’t been able to hold in a decade before finally putting it to his ear.

“Branwen.”

“Seriously, who are you expecting to call you?”

“Oh, hey, Jimmy~” he chirped softly. He eyed his arm, wondered if he could free it from Nora’s grasp, and then gave it up for lost. “No naughties, Nora’s with me.”

“Good to know, that’s absolutely why I was calling.”

“Jim! My kid is sleeping  _ right here _ !” he hissed. “Another time, a’right?”

James laughed. “I’m  _ kidding _ , Qrow. I was calling to invite you two to lunch today.”

“Yeah?” Qrow perked up; beside him, Nora rolled over and he took the chance to free his arm and sit up. “Merc must be out today.”

“He’s got plans with Winter. I thought I’d take advantage of the situation to spend some us time.”

“I can’t imagine Nora will object.” He looked over at her; despite his best efforts, she had woken up, and now she was stretching and trying to find a new comfortable position. At the sound of her name she gave him a quizzical look, which he met with a fond smile. “Morning, sweetie. Feel like getting lunch with Jimmy and Penny today?”

She nodded, stretched again, and then sat up and pulled his phone hand nearer so she could say, “Good morning, Mr. Ironwood.”

“Morning, Pumpkin,” he said. “How do you feel about lunch today?”

“Can we get pancakes?”

James laughed. “We’ll talk about it when we’re all together, okay?”

“Okay. But I’ll love you twenty percent more if you take me out for pancakes~”

“Good to know,” he said, and she pushed the phone back to Qrow so she could slide out of bed and pad out of the room, still yawning. Qrow flopped back onto his bed for a second, then stood and headed toward his bathroom, grabbing his clothes on the way.

“So about that phone sex you promised...”

-/-

Winter came over for breakfast before she and Mercury left. She sat ramrod straight at the table, taking dainty bites of her yogurt while across from her, he slouched over a bowl of Pumpkin Pete and glowered- not at her, just a general early-morning glower.

“What have you kids got planned today?” James asked, taking his own seat with his own bowl of cereal. Mercury raised an eyebrow at Winter; she hadn’t actually told him, just asked if he was free.

“The Malachite twins are having an impromptu gathering at the gazebo,” she said. “They invited me, and said that I could bring a plus one, if I wished.”

“The  _ Malachite twins _ ?” Mercury dropped his spoon in shock. “You’re friends with  _ them _ ? Seriously?” He made a sound not quite a laugh. “Jesus, Princess. The Malachites, Vernal… are you friends with anyone who’s  _ not _ a future criminal?”

She gave him a cool look. “I’m friends with  _ you _ , aren’t I?”

“Ha! I’m not your best example for that one. I am absolutely destined for at least one prison sentence.”

“Or we could not joke about that kind of thing,” James said. “Who are the Malachite twins?”

“Miltia and Melanie Malachite,” Winter said. “Mercury isn’t wrong; one or both of them are destined to inherit their father’s place at the head of Vale’s criminal underworld.”

“And you’re… friends with them?”

“That’s what I said!” Mercury cackled. “What gives, Princess? How do you attract these people?”

“Hm.” Winter shifted primly, turning all her attention to her yogurt with an almost idle, dismissive air before giving Mercury a knowing sidelong look and, “Surrounding myself with suspicious people makes it easier to avoid the notice of authority.”

“I  _ knew it _ ,” Mercury said, lighting up with almost malicious glee. “You’re a devious motherfucker, Princess.”

“Language, please,” James reminded him, and turned to Winter. “I’m not sure that’s a good attitude to have toward your friends, Winter. Not to mention your association with criminals could reflect poorly on you instead.”

“Relax, General, she’s just messing with us,” Mercury scoffed. “She’s friends with them because she’s a big ol’ lesbian and they’re pretty.” She shot him a glare, and he grinned toothily. “Tell me I’m wrong. Go ahead, lie to my fucking face.”

“ _ Language _ , Mercury.” James raised an eyebrow at Winter, who sighed.

“...he’s not wrong.”

“Ha!”

-/-

After the pair had left, James was left to make a choice between doing dishes, or getting another bowl of cereal so he could put it off a little bit longer. While he decided this, Penny finally came downstairs, stopping behind him and staying there for a long moment.

He half turned to her. “Can I help you with something?”

“You have a scratches on the back of your neck,” she said.

His hand came up immediately to cover them. “Ah- yes- well-” He cleared his throat. It had been a few days; he’d have thought they’d healed by now. He made a mental note to talk to Qrow about trimming his nails. Again. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Peanut. How do you feel about lunch with Qrow and Nora today?”

She took the change in subject without struggle, and lit up in delight. “Can we get pancakes?”

James bit back a laugh. “There is a very good chance of pancakes in our future, yes. We’ll pick them up around noon, so be ready by then, okay?”

“Okay, Father!” She kissed his cheek and hurried off to get breakfast, and said, from the fridge, “You should probably tell Mr. Qrow to trim his nails; those are  _ very _ bad scratches.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Yes, that is exactly how he phrased it. Qrow is never letting him live that down.
> 
> **Hei Xong. King of Vale's underworld, successful business owner, and noted family man.
> 
> (They totally made out in that bathroom.)


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has a really nice day where nothing bad happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote this chapter as a precursor to a really mean chapter, but then I ended up moving some plot beats around and the one intended for nineteen was moved to a later arc. So I wrote the nothing bad ever happened chapter for nothing.

-/-

“Seriously though,” Mercury said, after they’d left. “How are you friends with the Malachite twins?”

“I’m not,” Winter said. “A friend is, and I can only assume my invitation came at his instigation.”

“Which friend?”

Winter glanced over at him, and then looked away quickly. “You don’t know this one,” she said. “He’s a student at the college, we knew each other several years ago and reconnected when he started school this year.”

“I wanna meet him.”

“What? Why?”

Mercury rolled his eyes. “Come  _ on _ , Princess!  _ Every _ friend you’ve introduced me to since I got here has been a girl. I didn’t think you  _ had _ guy friends but me. This guy is the exception, and I wanna meet him.”

“I do have guy friends,” she said. “I have plenty of guy friends.”

“And another thing,” he went on, ignoring her, “He’s in college? How do you know a college boy? Why are you friends with a college boy? What’s going on? I am  _ dying _ to know, there’s an interesting backstory here.”

“There is no interesting backstory,” she said. “He is… related to a friend of my sister’s, and we played together often during playdates. And I have many friends several years older or younger than me- you, for example.”

“Two years ain’t  _ that _ much.”

“Nor is three.” She sighed. “You are making something extravagant out of something that is nothing, Mercury.”

“So why did he get you invited to the Malachites’, then?”

“I don’t know. I’m only assuming it was his interference, as he is friends with them and I am not.”

Mercury gave her a suspicious look, and folded his arms. “There’s something you’re not telling me here.”

She rolled her eyes. “All right, if you must know. The truth is, I’m not a lesbian, he’s actually my secret boyfriend, and the Malachites’ gathering is in fact our secret wedding. We’re eloping. You’re going to be best man.”

He looked baffled, and then squinted at her. She looked over, nervous.

“What?”

“Just trying to figure out if you’re doing that thing where you say the true thing but in a way that I think it’s a lie so that I’ll tell you I don’t believe you.”

Another eyeroll. “I’m not. I’m just trying to show you how ridiculous you sound.”

“Okay, good.” He dug his shoulders into the seat, slouching down pointedly. “Because so far my gaydar has a one hundred percent success rate, and I’d rather you didn’t ruin it by turning out to be secretly straight.”

“I assure you, that is  _ not _ the case.”

-/-

Since the kids had unanimously asked for pancakes, it was decided that they would get lunch at Pancake Palace*. While they were waiting to be seated, Qrow knelt and whispered something to Nora, who nodded eagerly and buried a laugh in her hands. When Qrow stood again, James gave him a questioning look.

“What was that about?”

“Nothing, nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

James looked suspicious, but he didn’t have long to wonder because their waitress appeared then. Qrow nudged Nora as she did.

“Hi, guys,” the waitress said. “Would you like a booth or a table this afternoon?”

Before James could say anything, Nora piped in with, “Can we sit on one of the balconies?”

“Oh, sweetie.” She knelt. “Our balconies are for the evening crowds. We don’t open them at lunchtime.”

Nora hung her head, and James was almost taken in except that he’d  _ seen _ how Nora acted when she was genuinely heartbroken, and this was very clearly an act. “Okay,” she said, playing with her hands and contriving to look as shattered as possible. “That’s okay then.”

“I’m really sorry, hon.”

“No, it’s fine!” She said hurriedy, managing to make her reassuring smile look both forced and still heartbroken. “This is just the first time we’ve been able to go out in  _ ages _ and I thought… that it would be nice,” she finished, letting her shoulders and her expression fall at the end.

It was an Oscar-worthy performance, and their waitress must have agreed because when Qrow, probably on cue, put a hand on her shoulder and started to assure her that they could still have a nice lunch together, she said, “Oh… hang on, lemme go ask my manager.”

“You don’t have to-“ Qrow began, but she waved him away.

“Don’t worry about it, sir. I grew up with busy parents, I know how it is when you finally get a chance to go out. Just give me one moment, I’ll be right back.”

Once she was gone, Nora gave Qrow a hopeful look, and he flashed her a grin and a thumbs up.

“That was great, kiddo,” he said. “Real tearjerker.”

She beamed. “I just remembered what you said about using as much of the truth as possible.”

James shook his head. “Are you seriously teaching your daughter to con wait staff?”

“Well I mean… look at her,” he said, gesturing at Nora, who took that as her cue to look as cute and innocent as possible. James had, at this point, known her long enough to know that it was bullshit. “If she’s gonna insist on being this cute, I’m gonna take advantage of that.”

“You menace,” James said, and then stole a quick kiss as their waitress came up and attention was diverted to her.

“My manager says it’s cool,” she said. “If you’ll follow me I’ll get you seated and you can start thinking about your orders.”

-/-

The gazebo, as it was known, was what remained of an old park near the edge of town; mostly overgrown or sold off as private land by this point, what had once been a big park with plenty of space was now a small patch of high grass and shrubby trees surrounding a run-down gazebo. The only reason this bit of the park hadn’t been absorbed as the rest had was due to a dispute about ownership of the land, and its semi-seclusion had made it the perfect gathering place for teenagers wishing for a bit of privacy to hang out.

Winter parked in the lot behind the tiny sporting goods store, her pristine white sports car looking out of place among the battered and muddy pickups and jeeps sprinkled around the rest of the lot. Also out of place was the shiny black convertible at the edge of the lot; this, Mercury knew, belonged to the Malachite twins, who had at best a passing acquaintance with the word subtle.

It was a short walk to the gazebo, but once they got near they could hear talking and laughter, and when they came out of the footpath they could see about two dozen or so girls scattered around the park. On the gazebo itself there was a cooler, and the Malachite twins standing together looking over everything with distant satisfaction.

“Those two creep me the fuck out,” Mercury whispered, and got an elbow in his shoulder for his trouble. He looked around. He knew these other girls mostly in passing, and all of them were in high school, making him the youngest there, and the only guy as well. He frowned. “This ain’t a girls only type deal, is it?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Winter said, but at another glance around, her footsteps picked up pace and in a second, she was standing in front of the twins. Mercury was impressed- they’d taken a position that would ensure anyone wishing to address them would be talking up to them, rather than on their level.

“Power move,” he whispered, and was elbowed again.

“Hello,” Winter said. “It didn’t occur to me to ask this before, but is this a girls only gathering? I brought my friend Mercury as my plus one, and he’s a boy.”

Mercury waved. The twins exchanged a look; it was the one in red (he’d never bothered to find out which was which) who answered.

“It’s not girls only, most of our guests just tend to be ladies. You’re welcome to stay.”

“Well, that’s good, I don’t wanna have to walk home.” He folded his hands behind his head and, addressing Winter more than the twins, said, “You think any of these girls will be into a middle school guy?”

The one in white laughed into her hand. “I would really love to see you try hitting on  _ any _ of them,” she said.

“All lesbians, huh? Well, you’ll be happy here, Princess. All right, all right, I’ll be on my best behavior.” And with that, he gave a two fingered wave and walked away.

-/-

There were four balconies that circled the upper level of Pancake Palace; their party was led to a corner table on the far balcony. Qrow noted as they made their way up the stairs that this not only put them nearer the kitchen, but also out of immediate sight of the dining room below. It looked like they were the Palace’s dirty little secret.

Still, their seat, as all balcony seats, had a great view of the street below, which was why he liked eating on the balcony anyway. He said as much to James, once their waitress had taken their drink orders and left them to peruse the menu.

“I had a feeling that was it,” James said. “You do like your bird’s eye view if you can get one.”

Qrow shook his head. “I  _ swear _ I can’t understand why people think you don’t tell jokes,” he said. “Kali once asked me how I liked dating someone with no sense of humor.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Qrow,” James said, picking up his menu.

“I like the balcony too,” Nora said, sitting up on her knees so she could lean on the sill and look at the street down below. “I like looking down at people for a change.”

“Hands off the glass, kiddo,” Qrow said, and Nora pulled her hands away guiltily. “People gotta clean that and we’re putting our waitress through enough extra trouble as it is.”

“You mean you care?” James asked, and Qrow waved that away.

“Trust me, she’s getting a good tip outta this. I ain’t heartless or anything. Besides,  _ she’s _ the one that volunteered.”

“Because you emotionally blackmailed her into it.”

“Nothing Nora said wasn’t true,” Qrow argued. “We just laid out the facts and let her make her own choices.”

James rolled his eyes. “You really don’t think that was at least a little bit morally dubious?”

“It would only be morally dubious if we weren’t tipping hella well. Besides, look how happy the kids are to be up here!”

He gestured at the girls, who took the cue to smile broadly at him. James made an exasperated noise.

“You are a  _ terrible _ influence on my daughter.”

-/-

Mercury ambled back over to Winter eventually, grabbing a drink from the cooler and sprawling near her and the two other girls she was talking to.

“So the twins were wrong, only some of these girls are lesbians.”

“They never said they were, only that it would be entertaining to watch you attempt to romance them. Which, I agree.”

“Eh, you just wait. One day I’m gonna get my real puberty and I’m gonna be so hot even you’ll question your sexuality over it.”

“I  _ highly _ doubt that,” Winter said.

“Eh, we’ll see.”

-/-

Their food arrived to Penny and Nora debating which classes offered the better advantages for magic users in ddnmd, with James occasionally countering their points and Qrow mocking James mercilessly for knowing their 'nerd game' so well. The discussion was interrupted by their waitress, and there was a brief break while they got their meals going. James flipped over the jelly packet to read the nutritional information, while Qrow dumped half a bottle of syrup on his stack of pancakes and took a bite without hesitation.

“Ooh, too hot,” he said.

“Hot damn,” James said automatically, without looking up from his jelly packet.

The kids- who had hitherto never heard him swear- looked surprised, but that was nothing to how wide Qrow’s eyes got in surprise.

“ _ What _ ,” he said, face splitting into a grin, “ _ did you just say _ ? You got  _ memes _ , Jimbotron?”

James gave him an unimpressed look, and busied himself spreading jelly on his own stack.

“What do you mean, ‘Do I have memes’?”

“That is  _ not _ how I worded that.”

“Of course I have memes. I have  _ been _ on the internet, you know.”

Qrow shook his head. “The rumor come out: does Jimmy has memes?”

“Qrow, we can’t keep doing this.”

“Sure we can! Don’t believe me, just watch.”

“I need to leave right now immediately.”

While this exchange went on across from them, Nora leaned close to Penny and whispered, “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”

Penny shrugged, equally baffled. “I think they have been apart for so long that they are going mad,” she whispered back. “Or possibly it is just a sign of senility.”

-/-

Mercury ended up wandering away from the gathering eventually. As much fun as he was having needling Winter, there was only so much he could take- while he wouldn’t say he was socially awkward, Emerald had been happy to say it for him more than once, and he figured that was as good an explanation as any.

His easy amble found him by the edge of the river, in a place where the grass was too overgrown to make the bank accessible. A pink hunter’s ribbon tied to one branch alerted him to the presence of a trap line, and he toyed with the idea of letting any fish in it out just for fun before deciding against it. It would be a lot of trouble to get to that part of the bank, and one wrong move could end in a dousing.

There were some turtles sunning themselves on an overturned tree off the bank. He grabbed his phone to snap a picture of them to show Penny, and then nearly dropped his phone when it started buzzing midway through.

It was Winter. He rolled his eyes. “What’s up?”

“Where did you go?”

“Calm your tits, Princess, I just went for a walk. I’m near the river. There’s turtles.”

“I’m coming to find you. It’s time to go.”

“Sure, whatever. I’m gonna go back to looking at the turtles.” A movement caught his eye, and he added, “There’s a bird now too. You think it’s gonna eat the turtles?”

“What kind of bird is it?”

“Do I look like a bird encyclopedia? I don’t know. I think it’s a heron or something. Do herons eat turtles?”

“No idea. But probably.”

“Aw, dang.”

-/-

They decided to talk to the bookstore after lunch; it was only a few blocks away, and after the lunch they’d had, a long walk seemed like what the doctor ordered. Penny and Nora ran ahead, and had to be constantly called back when, as they put it, the adults took too long.

At one point, they were overtaken and passed by two young ladies- no more than sixteen, if that, holding hands and laughing as they dashed through the light foot-traffic. James tracked them with his gaze for a moment until they were out of sight, then brought Qrow’s hand up to his and pressed a quiet kiss to the thumb.

Qrow raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. “Nickel** for your thoughts?”

“Just thinking how much has changed in my lifetime alone,” James said, and nodded in the direction of the building the girls had ducked into. Qrow made a soft ‘ah’ of understanding. “If you had told me, when I was their age, that all of this-“ He raised their joined hands pointedly, but Qrow suspected that wasn’t the extent of his meaning, “-would be possible, in my life at all, let alone while I’m still in my prime…”

Qrow nodded. “Jesus. Yeah, I get what you mean. When I was a kid we were still calling things gay cause we didn’t like ‘em.”

“Josef and I were together for years before we could even legally marry,” James went on, gesturing wide with his free hand. “Can you imagine that? I was ready to start my life with the man I loved, and we just. Couldn’t. And then we could. And did. Almost immediately. Not to mention the hoops we had to jump through to adopt Penny, even when her birth parents approved us personally.”

“You knew them?”

James hummed an affirmative. “They spent the last couple weeks of her pregnancy with us. They were young- mistakes happened, choices were made. We got the child we wanted, and they- hopefully- were able to finish growing up and make a good life for themselves.”

They’d reached the bookstore now. The girls hurried off to the gaming section to look at the ddnmd books, while Qrow moved over to see if any of the gothic horror caught his eye and James, after a quick look around to ensure he wasn’t being watched, ambled toward the romance section.

He grabbed the first book he found with a cowboy on the cover and went over to pay for it before Qrow could see it and make fun of him, and then took a seat at one of the tables at the front of the store to read while he waited for the others.

(The book was called Legato Clouds. The premise looked promising, and he found the steampunk-esque setting appealing. It would be a satisfying before-bed read for the next week or so, or so he hoped.)

Qrow appeared while he was still on the first chapter, and he hurried to close the book and tuck it away before it could be spotted.

No such luck. Qrow gave him a knowing smile. “Another one of your romance novels you pretend you don’t read?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t, sure you don’t. What is it this time? Werewolves? Pirates?”

“...cowboys.”

Qrow laughed. “Of course it is.” He enjoyed a good chuckle over that, and then reached over to touch James’ hand. “Hey, listen, I want to talk to you real quick, while the girls are busy.”

“Everything okay?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I was just, thinking. Earlier, when you mentioned Josef…” He hesitated, and laced their fingers together. “You never really talk about him. And I saw you stopped wearing your ring awhile back. And I notice these things and I just…” He took a deep breath. “I worry, all right? That you’re holding back cause you don’t want to, I don’t know, make things awkward or something. You know?” He turned James’ hand over and started tracing the silver joints with his thumb, not looking up. “Anyway, I just wanted to say that it’s okay if you want to talk about ‘im sometimes. I know you’re mine now, but there’s a part of you that’s always gonna be his, and I don’t mind if that part wants to come out once in awhile.”

“Qrow…” James turned his hand around and folded it around Qrow’s. “Thank you.”

Qrow’s ears burned. He shrugged, and put his focus on their joined hands rather than look up at James’ face. “I mean, s’not a big deal, really. He was… he was your husband. He was Penny’s dad. That doesn’t change, you know? Even if we- I mean, I know we’ve kinda agreed to put a pin in this topic for now, but if we  _ do _ get married, none of that changes what you had. And, you know, I don’t say it too good but I  _ do _ love you, and I don’t want you to go burying a piece of yourself for my sake. So if you want to talk about him- I mean, it’s up to you, just don’t not for my sake. You know?”

James nodded. “I thought it might make you uncomfortable,” he admitted. “But I stopped wearing my ring because it felt like the right time to. Because I realized that even though I do still and always will love him… he wasn’t the first in my heart anymore.”

Qrow’s blush spread from his ears across his cheeks and nose. “...oh,” he said, a little hoarse. “You never said…”

“I did.” James brought Qrow’s hand up and kissed the joint of his thumb. “You just weren’t listening for it.”

“Yeah? Well I’m too brainless to be subtle with like that, you gotta spell shit out for me.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Welcome to Pancake Palace, where we have pancakes and also things that are not pancakes.
> 
> **Inflation gets everywhere.
> 
> It's gonna be a really long time until we get payoff for that whole thing about Winter's college boyfriend. Don't worry about it for now.
> 
> 4/18 eta: Story is currently on hiatus until I get the RWBY itch again. Should be late summer/early fall if the pattern holds- see you guys then, and sorry for the wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. You. Yeah you. Sitting there with the computer and/or other electronic device in front of you. You know you want to hit me up over on Tumblr. My handle is @grifalinas. Come join me. Cry about James Ironwood with me. You know you want to.
> 
> (I would promise it will be worth it but we all know that's a damned lie.)
> 
> Also apparently this is my 1ooth story posted to Ao3, which I think means that I'm contractually obligated to finish it.)


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